The Winchester's Witches
by PrincessHera
Summary: New Aurors Cami and Mara could not have prepared themselves for the adventures and the drama of working with two American Demon Hunters. And Sam and Dean...well, they'd seen a lot in their days of hunting, but they'd never seen an entire fictional universe come to life. How will this unlikely team fare together in a battle against earth's scariest creatures? Sam/OC & Dean/OC
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer__: I do not own any of the rights to the Supernatural __or its characters. All intellectual and financial rights belong to Eric Kripke, creator of Supernatural. I also do not own any rights to Harry Potter or its characters. All intellectual and financial rights belong to J.K. Rowling.__ Also the story lines of characters may have been altered._

Chapter 1- The Odd Couples

"Remind me...how we got stuck with the most boring assignment ever," Mara whined to her partner Cami as she absent-mindedly ran her fingers along the solid oak handrail lining the old train's corridor.

"Seriously? Mara, we just graduated from the academy. What did you expect?" Cami said, annoyed that her partner couldn't ever just be content.

As the two Aurors walked the length of the train, young witches and wizards hurried past them in both directions, yelling and laughing. It wasn't that Mara didn't like kids or anything. But one of the main reasons she'd become an Auror was because it was usually fast-paced. There was nothing fast-paced about security duty on the Hogwarts Express.

"So how long before we get to the school?" Cami asked her partner.

Mara looked down at the silver and black leather watch strapped to her left wrist. "Another hour."

Cami glanced out the window. The sun was just disappearing over the horizon, leaving a tiny sliver of orange along the skyline which meant it had finally gotten dark enough that the golden lamps on the inside of the train finally flickered on.

"Well at least we got to take another start-of-term train ride," Mara said and peeked into a nearby compartment where a group of boys and girls sat talking animatedly and occasionally laughing. It brought back memories of her and her best friend at Hogwarts Trisha. They'd planned on being best friend for the rest of their lives. But then Trisha had been recruited by the Montrose Magpies and Mara joined the Auror academy. The two friends had barely spoken in the past two years.

Without warning, the train came to a complete stop. Mara's flashbacks crumbled, and the jerk of Newton's second law of motion took effect, pulling Mara and Cami face-first into the floor. "OUCH!" Cami groaned. All of the lamps went out at once, leaving a half-moon as the only source of light.

Cami rolled over, ignoring the dull ache pounding through her hands and knees and head. (Each body part that had made contact with the ground.) Just as Mara and Cami were getting to their feet, a blood-curdling scream sounded from the front of the train. Cami's stomach dropped. She whipped out her wand, noticing that Mara had done the same just a split second before. Students who'd been out in the corridor fumbled in the dark to get inside a compartment as the pair sprinted in the direction of the scream.

When they'd reached the front of the train, the women looked around, peeking in a few of the compartments, trying to find a panic-stricken teenager. A sudden thud sounded behind the door of the train's cab. Before Mara and Cami could turn around, a man crashed through the closed door, landing just a few inches short of a very surprised Mara.

_What the bloody hell?! _Mara's thoughts screamed. Her adrenaline was pumping hard, and she couldn't decide whether she was more panicked or excited that this assignment had suddenly become a hundred times less boring.

Without hesitating, the man who'd crashed through the door jumped up and rushed back into the train's cab. Mara followed him with Cami at her heels.

Inside the two women came upon a scene that neither of them could have ever prepared for. It took a second for both of the young Aurors to register what was going on. Under the dim emergency lights, two men were circling a livid Professor Patil.

Against the far wall, Professor Flitwick lay unconscious on the ground. Cami's immediate response was to tend to the victim; she ran the perimeter of the room, never turning her back on the three figures in the center.

To Cami's and Mara's horror, Professor Patil opened her mouth and gnashed a mouthful of enormous teeth. She hissed and a forked tongue at least a half a meter long emerged from between her gasped out loud, and Cami froze momentarily.

_That's not right_. Mara thought. _I've never seen anything like it_.

Mara, the top of her class both at Hogwarts and at the academy, mentally searched through all of the creatures filed away in her brain but came up with nothing. Her gut wrenched as she realized that she had no idea what to do. They'd trained her for battle with every creature known in the wizarding world. _But what about the creatures that nobody knew about?_

Suddenly, the taller of the two men pulled out a water gun._ A water gun? _Mara watched curiously as the liquid from the gun hit the creature that looked like the Hogwarts transfiguration master.

"Now Dean!" the tall man shouted. The shorter man burst forward and dumped a bottle of the same unknown liquid over the sizzling creature, whose skin began to boil and slough off. Every drop of the liquid acted like acid on the creatures skin.

"Alright. Off with his head!" The shorter man yelled.

His teammate reached into his jacket. "Dammit!" The tall man cursed, "Where's the knife? It's not here." His eyes began searching the floor. But as each second passed, the creature began healing itself, and it grabbed at the shorter man.

Mara shot a glance over at Cami, who was watching the scene while also tending to the unconscious professor.

Unsure of what to do, Mara shot a blast from her wand at the creature. "Reducto!" It went sailing into the corner of the room and out-of-reach of the two men.

"What the hell!?" the short man whipped around. He and the taller man stared at Mara in shock. "Who are you?!"

Mara kept her eyes on the creature. She didn't even bother looking at the men. "Does that really matter right now?"

The Professor Patil monster jumped to its feet and sprang at Mara. Mara ducked, but the move was unnecessary. "Avada Kadavra" A green light erupted in the room and the monster was blasted into the opposite corner.

Cami had deemed Professor Flitwick in stable condition, though he was still unconscious, and she stood to join the fight. Mara looked behind her. "What in the -?" she couldn't even finish the thought as she realized that Cami's killing curse hadn't even harmed the creature.

Cami realized it too. _Oh...this is Bad!_

Mara yelled at the men, "Whatever you poured on it before...do you have more?"

The shorter man stopped gawking at the two women and focused on the creature once again. "I'm out. Sam? You?"

"I have one more bottle." He held up a black squirt bottle for the group to see. "But we still don't have the knife."

"We can take care of that," Cami assured them rubbing her free hand on the back of her neck.

Mara caught the signal. "Just throw the bloody liquid at it."

And that's exactly what the man did. He ripped the cap off the squirt bottle and threw the contents at the creature. It shrieked as the liquid burned gaping red holes in its skin.

Cami had stepped up beside Mara, and they both raised their wands at the creature. "Diffindo!" they shouted in unison. The monster stopped moving, and its body collapsed as the head rolled a few feet in the direction of the two women.

The two strange man stared up at Cami and Mara, each coming up with his own theory on what they'd just watched these two girls do. Then the two women turned their wands on the men.

"Who are you and what are you doing on this train?" Mara demanded.

The men looked at Mara and Cami in surprise, then at the wands, then at each other, then back at the wands.

Short on patience and extremely overwhelmed by the terror she'd just experienced, Mara blasted a warning shot from her wand at the lamp on the wall behind the men. The lamp exploded, sending bits of gold and glass across the room. "I am ordering you. Answer my question." She glared at the boys.

"I'd suggest you do as she say." Cami's voice chimed in calmly. Cami wasn't a huge fan of Mara's violent methods, but this was not the time to argue over methods...again. It was already taking every last bit of energy that Cami possessed to keep from freaking out_. _She had not prepared herself mentally for so much excitement on this assignment.

"Alright. Everyone just hold on for a second," the tall man held up his hands in surrender.

"Yeah! Hold on! Because I'm wondering what fucked up universe we just stepped into?" The other man said as he grabbed the handle of a pistol in the back of his jeans. His theory was that these girls were just another type of demon trying to get ahead, and he would kill them in a heartbeat if they threatened him.

"Shut up Dean," the taller man barked. Dean held up his free hand in defense. Then the taller man twisted back to Mara and Cami. "Seriously though. We're not the bad guys. We're hunting the bad guys." His theory was much less cynical; he figured that these girls were just hunters with a unique set of weaponry.

Mara took a step forward, and Dean pulled his gun.

"Expelliarmus!" Mara yelled. The gun went sailing across the room.

Mara smiled. _That was fun_. "Now, from your partner here, I've gathered that your name is Dean. Dean what?"

Dean refused to speak. In fact he wouldn't even look at Mara, he just stared at his gun, lying on the floor near the creature's dead body.

"Winchester," the tall man answered for him, "He's Dean Winchester and I'm his brother Sam."

"Well, Sam and Dean-" Mara started but was interrupted by the soft chime of her cell phone ringing. She answered without checking the caller I.D.

"Yes?" she answered, making sure to keep her wand aimed at Dean.

Mara listened to the Head of Aurors on the other end ask her about the distress call they'd gotten when the train had suddenly lost power.

"We have the situation under control now Mr. Potter. However, Professor Flitwick was injured and possibly some students, nothing serious. But there is a situation. We will need to have you get someone to get this train moving again from the London station, and we also request that two more Aurors meet us at the school to ensure the safety of the students as they proceed from the Hogwarts Express to the school. Cami and I will need to take care of a few things yet on the train."

Mr. Potter agreed to all of Mara's requests, and then ordered her and Cami report to him the moment they returned to the Ministry.

"Yes sir of course. We will head straight there as soon as we're finished."

Mara hung up and pocketed the small phone.

"Mara," Cami caught her partner's attention, "We should get these men confined."

Mara nodded and moved behind Dean, jabbing her wand into his back.

"Ow!" he complained.

Cami did the same to Sam, but without the physical abuse.

The witches prodded the men along until they found their compartment. Fortunately, it was also near the front of the train. As soon as they were all inside, Mara locked the door and made sure there were no gaps in the curtains.

"Okay. This is ridiculous." Dean cried out in exasperation. "Look ladies. We're hunters. We hunt evil creatures, so unless you're supernatural beings that hurt people, which so far I'm not convinced you aren't, then we're no threat to you."

"And we should believe you because?" Mara challenged.

"Well let's start with because we just helped you kill that thing back there and probably save an entire train full of people," Dean said in annoyance.

Mara frowned, keeping her wand pointed squarely at his chest. "Fine," she admitted, "Maybe you did. But you're still strangers...on a train full of children. So I'll apologize for not being more hospitable."

Cami focused on the man she had at wand-point, hoping that he would be more level-headed than his brother. "Okay then. Sam? You're hunters. So what exactly are you hunting?"

"They're called Leviathans."

"That's not possible. They don't exist," Cami stated matter-of-factly. And she should know, she'd read countless books where Leviathans were mentioned. But none of them contained any creatures that actually existed in this world.

"You'd be surprised at all the creatures out there you thought were only fairy tales or ghost stories." Though Sam had a feeling that these two girls actually did have a good idea about many of the monsters and demons that inhabited this planet.

"Oh you really have no idea how much we'd believe." Cami smirked confirming Sam's suspicions. Cami was baffled by the men. _They're speaking as though they_... "Oh gosh. You guys have no idea where you are do you?"

Dean sank down onto the bench. "Yeah. We're on a train."

Mara raised an eyebrow, catching on to Cami's train of thought. (No pun intended). _Wow! These two are in way over there heads_.

"Technically yeah, but-" Cami cut off as the train lurched forward, moving again and the lamps in the compartment flicked back on.

Cami and Mara both lost their balance as the train suddenly picked up speed. Cami went sprawling across the floor between the benches, much the way she had in the corridor earlier.

Mara's fall proved much worse. The young Auror fell forward right onto Dean.

Her knee collided with the bench between Dean's legs, and her ankle twisted just the wrong way. Mara cried out in pain, holding back tears. Without really thinking, she grabbed hold of whatever she could, which in this case, was Dean Winchester. After a few seconds, the pain seemed a tad bit more bearable, and Mara realized where her grip was. She sprung back off of Dean, disgusted with herself. Dean, on the other hand, sported a smug grin.

Sam helped Cami into an upright position and picked up her wand for her. Dean also had a wand in his hands...Mara's wand. The women eyed the men nervously.

After a few seconds of tense silence, Sam carefully handed Cami her wand. He nudged Dean, and Dean reluctantly handed Mara's wand back to her. Sam didn't feel the need to make anymore enemies, and by returning the girls' weapons, he thought that maybe the women would start trusting them.

"Perhaps you could stop threatening us with those," Sam suggested to the women.

"Okay." Mara slowly lowered her wand. However, Cami didn't need to. As soon as Sam had returned her wand to her, she'd kept it at her side. Cami had already decided to try trusting the two Winchesters.

"Are those supposed to be wands?" Sam asked in amusement.

"No," Cami answered him, "They ARE wands."

"And before...you said Expelliarmus." Sam thought aloud.

"Yes," Cami nodded.

"What like the in Harry Potter?" Sam asked doubtfully.

"You're not just on any train. You're on the Hogwarts Express, a train full of witches and wizards."

Mara shot Cami a warning look. Unless in life-threatening circumstances, Aurors were not allowed to divulge information about the magical world to muggles.

Cami rolled her eyes. "What? They just killed a supernatural creature, and they knew what they were doing."

"Fine. But if anybody finds out, you're the one headed to Azkaban.

Dean shook his head. "Man! Why are all the hot ones crazy?!" he complained to himself. And he couldn't deny that the women were quite good-looking. Now that the lights were back on, Dean had noted to how each girl looked. The tall one, Cami, was full-figured with dirty-blonde hair, which she kept up in a ponytail, and pronounced facial features, including big blue eyes. And the short one, Mara, was slender, with long brown hair that had been curled and fell past her shoulders, and she had green eyes.

"But it's a story...a child's book. It's not possible," Sam feebly tried to reason.

"Something tells me you've seen more than one impossible thing in your lifetime," Cami smirked.

Mara collapsed on the bench across from the men, now drained from putting on a tough front and in a great deal of pain from the beating she'd took just moments before."Look, you guys can believe what you want, but don't say we didn't warn you. This place is real, and we are REAL witches."

Cami took a seat next to Mara, and the four sat there in silence. The sound of the train speeding over the tracks and the air rushing overtop the train had a very calming effect that allowed the group to sort out their thoughts.

"Okay. Fine. I'll go along with this." Sam finally broke the silence. "So what are you're plans now then?".

Mara put up a finger. She silently cast a Muffliato spell then turned to whisper in her partner's ear. Cami nodded, and whispered back.

After she'd lifted the silencing spell, Mara answered Sam's question. "Well, we have a problem. And since you two seem to know some things we don't, we'd like to see if we could work together. This is all circumstancial of course. We still have to report back to our superiors."

"And why would we help you?" Dean asked, though his words were much less harsh this time.

"Because if that really was a Leviathan in there. Then it is our responsibility to find and destroy any more that might be roaming around. If you're hunting them too, then we'd probably have more success working as a team."

"Sorry Lady," Dean said mildly, "But we don't play well with others."

"Well that's obvious." Mara said with a hint of amusement. "And my name is Mara, by the way. But admit it. If Cami and I hadn't showed up when we did, chances are one or both of you would have been lunch for that monster."

"And thanks for that," Sam cut in, "But my brothers actually right...in this case. We can't risk either of you, or anyone else, getting hurt under our watch. I don't think it will work."

Mara frowned because she didn't want to have to resort to threats, but it was protocol. "Fine, but either way we're taking you into the Ministry and turningyou over to the Head of the Auror Office. So it's up to you if you want to help or not?"

Dean jumped up, pulling yet another pistol from the inside of his coat.

"Impedimentia" Cami grumbled and flicked her wand, "Will you please stop with the crude weapon-wielding threats?"

Cami's curse blew Dean back into his seat with such force that the gun fell to the floor. Mara bent over and picked up the gun, unloading the bullets into one hand. Her eyes grew wide and her color faded. "You were going to shoot me!? With real bullets!?"

Dean didn't answer. He was too stunned as he realized that these women may actually be telling the truth, that they might actually be witches. _Though the whole Harry Potter thing...that's taking it a bit too far._

"Look, you can't turn us in...to anyone. We have to stay off the radar," Sam urged Cami and Mara, "These Leviathans have people in high-places. The moment our names or faces resurface, they'll be on top of us like that." Sam slammed his hand against the wall.

Cami and Mara jumped.

"Then we'll make sure you stay hidden...if you agree to work with us." Cami folded her arms across her chest. She'd had even more time over the last few minutes to think about it. And if Mr. Potter did assign them to find more of these Leviathans, if that's what they really were. Then they needed these two men.

Sam understood all too well when he was being black-mailed. And though it was low, he and Dean couldn't risk being exposed. They'd come too far to get caught now. _Besides, these girls might really make all the difference. _Sam looked over at his brother. Dean didn't say a word which Sam knew meant that Dean couldn't think of a good enough argument.

"Fine," Sam conceded, "We'll try working together...for now."

**A quick word to my reader's. I'd had this crossover swimming around in my head for awhile, and I think I wrote the first chapter over about four different times. More than anything right now, I need some feedback on what you think about this storyline so far. Can't wait to hear from you all. :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi readers. I managed to get a couple more chapters written pretty quickly. You'll have to be somewhat patient with me as sometimes I can get ver busy with two kids a husband and two businesses to run. :) I am, however, having a lot of fun writing this story. I hope that you are liking the two witches I created. I just wanted to thank pancakeatebatman, kindleflame5, and musicalgryffindor for your awesome reviews. They definitely inspired me to write faster.**

Chapter 2- Harry Potter and the Demon Hunting Muggles

"Put these on," Cami handed each of the boys a silver ring. Sam, Dean, and the witches stood outside a run-down looking public restroom in a back alley of a street in London. Mara claimed that it was one of only places from which you could apparate into the ministry. Dean thought it looked like good place to get away with murdering someone (aka. him and his brother).

"What do these do?" Dean asked as he slipped the tiny piece of jewelry over his pinky finger. As soon as he did, his entire body disappeared.

"Crap!" Dean's voice yelled out. "What did you do to me? I'm gone. Where did I go?"

Mara laughed.

Sam gawked at the empty space of sidewalk where Dean's invisible form was standing. A smile formed on his face. "Perfect." He slipped his ring on and also disappeared.

"See...now you won't be seen until we reach Harry Potter's office."

Mara held open the door to the restroom. Unfortunately, the inside looked even worse than the outside. "Just remember. Nobody, including us, can see you. So you'll need to watch your step."

"And don't talk," Cami added.

"Got it," Sam said, stepping through the door so as not to draw attention to a door opening by itself.

"Alright," Cami opened her hand, "You'll need to hold our hands." Sam took Cami's hand, and Dean took Mara's.

"Oh, and try not to vomit on me," Mara told Dean.

"Vomit?"

Suddenly, the world swirled away. Sam and Dean felt like they were being sucked through a tunnel as blurs of objects spun around them. They moved too fast for their insides to catch up with their outsides. And before they had time to adjust, they're feet landed on firm ground. Everything around them kept spinning for a moment, and the earth felt like it was shifting beneath their feet.

Dean fought off the nausea. He couldn't help his frustration that Mara hadn't given more warning. Sam had known what to expect somewhat, from descriptions in the books. But he still couldn't have prepared for the uncomfortable feeling afterward. Once the men were able to focus, they took a look at the scene in front of them,

The Ministry lobby bustled with witches and wizards, hurrying to meetings and appointments. Lines formed here and there, in front of snack carts and newspaper stands. To the left sat a large desk with a sign over it that said "Guest Check-In". A few people stood in front of the desk, answering questions and having their wands checked. Sam ducked as a swarm of birds flew just overtop his head..no wait, those aren't birds. Those are paper airplanes.

"We'll take the stairs," Mara said aloud, "That way we won't be trying to squeeze into a crowded elevator."

Cami nodded and led the group to a set of double doors that opened up to a marble staircase.

It was only a short climb; the Aurors office was located on the second floor. When they stepped out onto the floor, Dean and Sam immediately had to flatten themselves up against the wall. A group of Aurors in training rushed past towards the elevators.

"This way." Cami jerked her head in the direction that the students had just come from. Sam and Dean followed the women to the end of the hall, and Mara knocked on a door. Dean and Sam read the print on the door's frosted glass window. **_Harry Potter, Head of Auror Office_**.

"Come in," a man's voice instructed from inside the office.

Cami twisted the worn, bronze handle and pushed open the door. Inside the office, papers were strewn across a large, mahogony desk. File cabinets lined the faded white wall, and a ceiling fan housed a not-so-bright overhead light.

"Cami. Mara. Please have a seat, and we can discuss your first assignment."

_First assignment? _Dean held in the urge to say the words aloud. He was appalled that not only had he been roped into working with a pair of witches, but now he was working alongside ameteurs.

"Sure," Cami said, sitting down in one of the chairs across from Harry. Mara took the other seat.

"So, tell me about what happened on the train. You didn't give me a whole lot to go on when I called. I have to tell you...I seriously debated on bringing in another team to back you up the moment I got off the phone."

"I apologize for not giving more information on the phone." Mara shifted in her seat, and told Harry about how the train and stopped and how they'd investigated the screaming.

"...But a man came flying through the door."

"A man?"

Mara nodded. "Yes, you see when we got to the cab, there were two men fighting this creature. It was a creature that had taken on the physical form of Professor Patil. And the two men helped us kill it."

Harry's face looked alarmed. "You killed it? And what became of these two men?"

"Well actually. Before we answer that, we'd like to explain a couple of things to you."

Harry looked puzzled but nodded. "Go ahead."

"We followed protocol," Cami insisted, "We confined the men and kept them at wand-point while we questioned them. What they had to say was very interesting."

Cami glanced over at her partner nervously.

"The men said that they were demon hunters, and the creature we killed was a Leviathan."

"A Leviathan?" Harry asked in surprise, "But they don't exist, not even in the magical world."

"They're not supposed to exist," Cami agreed, "And I didn't believe the men when they told us at first. But the evidence adds up, and I think they might be right. We know what we saw."

"And what of the two men..."

Mara swallowed hard, "We have them in custody."

"Good work."

"But sir, these men seem to know what they're talking about. And if what they are saying is true, then these Leviathans are a threat. Which is why we wanted to have you talk to them personally." Cami turned her head and nodded at the empty space in the room.

Sam removed his ring, rendering himself visible to the room, and Dean did the same a fraction of a second later.

Harry stood and pulled his wand from his robe, pointing it at the now visible men before him. "Mara! Cami!"

Cami kept her voice calm knowing that her partner would have much more trouble with keeping her emotions in check. "Mr. Potter. Please let us finish. These men may be our best chance if this whole Leviathan threat is real."

Harry kept his wand out in a defensive position, but his face grew more interested than aggressive. Sam and Dean stood near the door with their hands raised.

"So you men know about these Leviathan creatures?"

Sam stood there, unable to speak. Of all the fictional "characters" he'd met in his entire life... Angels, Demons, Reapers, even Satan himself, he never could have imagined meeting Harry Potter.

Dean, on the other hand, really wanted to teach these people how to use a gun. Being held at wand-point just looked stupid.

"Yes," Dean answered, "We've been hunting them for over a year. We killed the leader of the Leviathans. Unfortunately, not all Leviathans were following him. When we killed him, his followers all died, but the rest survived. And we've been trying to find out who it is before he has time to get organized and gather followers."

"And do you have a plan of attack?" Harry asked.

"As of right now we're just trying to kill as many of them as we can while we find out more inside information."

Harry nodded. "You may relax boys."

Sam and Dean both let their arms down to rest at their sides. Harry turned back to face his employees. "To be honest ladies, I am truly not sure what the best plan of action here is. Normally, we would arrest these two men and have their memories wiped."

"Hey man!" Dean yelled out, "This was all their idea."

"Given the situation, my aurors did what they thought was best. Of course, both Cami and Mara knew that erasing your memories was always a possibility," Harry stated officially.

"You what!?" Dean stared at Mara incredulously. He knew they'd been crazy to ever trust a couple of messed-up witches and their trickery.

Mara showed no emotion. Cami, however, looked guiltily at the two men, and shrugged.

"Nonetheless," Harry continued, "I have no choice here, but to believe that you men might possibly be telling the truth. And given the delicacy of the situation, I do not want to involve anyone else in this until we have more information. That being said, Mara, Cami, until further notice you two are on this case. You are to go out and learn as much as you can and report back to me. And I want you to take these men with you since they may know what they're doing. But keep a close eye on them."

"Yes sir," both women said.

"That will be all then. Have a good day ladies." The girls and Winchesters turned to leave.

"And you two gentlemen..." Harry stopped them. The foursome turned to look at the Head Auror. "If any harm comes to either of these women at your hands, I will take care of you myself. I'm sure at least one of you has heard of Azkaban."

The boys looked startled but nodded. "You may go," Harry waved them out. The moment they stepped out into the hallway, the door closed behind them.

"Quick!" Mara hissed, "The rings!"

It took the Winchester boys a moment to realize what she meant. Sam was the first to get it, and hurried to shove the silver ring back on his pinky finger. Dean followed suit, and the two men disappeared from sight. A couple of bystanders saw the display but shrugged it off. _They probably see much weirder things here everyday_. Thought Sam.

"This way," Cami said softly to the seemingly empty space beside her.

Cami and Mara led the way down the hall to their office. One of the interns had obviously done some cleaning the day before. All of the books were stacked neatly on the desks and shelves. Files were in the file cabinets, not strewn at random around the room, and the chairs were empty and clean. Sam shut the office door behind them, and the men removed the invisibility rings once more.

"Just so you all know. I do not like this...any of this," Dean ranted like a premadonna. Hunting with his brother could be trying enough at times. Hunting with two barely legal magical freaks would be almost as bad as the hell that Dean knew all too well. "And I do not trust you!" He pointed at the women.

Sam rolled his eyes. Much of the time, it was difficult to believe that this childish man was the eldest. "We got it Dean. Thanks!"

"Look I'm not thrilled about it either," Mara said casually, "But Cami and I have our orders." Though, the young witch couldn't help the eagerness that she was feeling about landing such an exciting case right away.

"And you don't ignore an order from Harry Potter...no matter who you are." Cami warned.

Sam nodded. "Okay. Then how do you want to do this?"

Cami mindlessly played with the crystal garden at her desk. "Well...since we know next to nothing. It's up to you two where we go next."

"And on the way there, you two can fill us in on all the details," Mara added.

"Fine," Dean grumbled. "Then let's start at Bobby's."

"Can you get us to the U.S.?" Sam asked.

"Yes. But we can only apparate to a location we know."

"We got on the tran in Janesville, Minnesota. You know where that is?"

Mara sat down at her desk."Of course. We can leave as soon as we finish our report." Cami nodded and sat down in her desk as well.

***An hour later****

"Ughhh," Dean groaned.

Sam actually got down on the ground for a moment, just until everything stopped spinning. As convenient as it was to apparate, he didn't feel it was worth the nauseous feeling afterward.

Cami and Mara snickered. "Don't worry," Cami said, "That feeling starts to fade after about the fifth or sixth time."

Dean and Sam both groaned. *Yeah like I'm ever doing that again* Dean thought.

"Okay," Sam stood and brushed his backside off, "Where are we exactly?"

"Right outside Janesville," Mara answered, "So where is this Bobby's place?"

"Sioux Falls, South Dakota. We'll have to drive there from here."

"Drive? You mean in a Car?"

"Not just any car..." Dean said with a wistful look on his face.

Sam rolled his eyes at his brother, "C'mon. This way." Sam motioned to the women to follow and headed toward the sound of traffic. After a short trek through town, they came to a small hardware store parking lot. Near the back of the lot was a shiny black Chevy Impala.

"Isn't she gorgeous?" Dean placed a hand gently near the front of the hood and ran his palm across it. "I always miss my Baby when I'm gone."

"Fascinating," Mara gave small smile, staring at Dean and the car.

"She is." Dean agreed with an enormous grin.

"No." Mara's smile grew. "I mean how you seem to love this thing the same way a real person love's a spouse or even a pet."

Dean frowned. Cami and Sam both laughed and Mara joined in. Dean huffed while he unlocked the doors.

"I'm riding up front," Mara announced heading for the front passenger side.

"You're not riding shotgun," Dean argued.

Mara gave a confused stare "Shotgun? No I'm riding in a car. Are you sure he should be driving?" Mara asked Sam.

"It's my car!" Dean exclaimed.

Sam laughed. "Dean you can be kinda thick. Mara shotgun is a slang term for the front passenger seat. And that's fine. You can ride shotgun."

Mara nodded, taking in this new information. She got into the car while Sam and Cami took seats in back. Dean already had the car running, AC/DC playing on the radio.

"Hit it!" Cami said.

"Alright." Dean pulled out of the parking lot and headed for the highway.

Sam smiled incredulusly at the woman in the seat next to him.

"Did I not use that term correctly?" She blushed slightly.

"No." He moved his eyes to the road out the front window. "You used it right."

"Okay," Mara cut into the awkward moment, "So we need to know everything."

Dean and Sam took turns filling them in on the events of the past couple of years. They explained how they'd killed Dick Roman, and how Dean had escaped from purgatory with Castiel. They told Mara and Cami all about Bobby and Castiel. They explained how Bobby been brought back to Earth to continue helping the two men with the Leviathan threat. (Mara noticed that when they were discussing Bobby's resurrection, Dean looked more upset than anything which she found odd since it sounded like he was a good friend...like family even.) The women asked the Winchesters some personal questions about themselves and their past. And when they'd finished, there were still three hours to go before they'd get to Bobby's house.

"I'm still having trouble believing that the whole Harry Potter world is real. So everything in the books really happened?" Sam asked.

"Yes," Cami nodded.

"The battle too?"

"Yes."

"Were you there? Did you fight?" Sam leaned in eagerly.

Mara snickered. "Of course not. The battle took place fifteen years ago. We were both about four-years-old. We didn't even know what was going on."

"I didn't realize."

"Common misconception because the books were released so far apart. It wasn't until the year of the final battle that the Ministry voted to have Ms. Rowling biography the whole story of Harry Potter. She pitched the idea of making the stories fictional children's books."

"Is she a witch?"

"No," Cami shook her head, "Just someone who knew about wizards and witches."

"That's amazing," Sam said, leaning back in his seat.

"Don't you have any questions Dean?" Cami asked.

"I don't really read for fun."

"That doesn't surprise me." Mara faced forward in her seat and watched the road speeding underneath them. It wasn't her first time in a car, but in the magical world automobiles were rarely used. It was kind of exciting to be riding in an American vehicle.

Sam continued to question Cami about the wizarding world while Dean and Mara sat silently in the front listening to the radio. After awhile, Mara couldn't help but start tapping her fingers and foot to the beat of the hard rock band's music.

A few hours later, Dean pulled the Impala into a scrapyard lined with old beat-up cars. At the end of the drive sat a small wooden house with chipping white paint and a faded black roof.

"We're here," Dean announced to the car.

The four of them stepped out of the vehicle and walked up to the side door. Sam knocked and seconds later a man answered the door. He was rough-looking and definitely much older than the two Winchester boys. He had a mustache and a beard and large bags under a pair a big, bright eyes. He wore a baseball cap and a flannel vest over a long sleeve shirt, a pair of dirty jeans, and boots.

"Sam. Dean." The man nodded at the two boys. "And who're the ladies?"

"That's Mara. And that's Cami." Sam pointed at each woman respectively.

"They're witches," Dean said brushing past Bobby to get inside.

"Witches? What the hell ya bringin' witches into my house for?" Bobby grumbled loudly.

"It's okay Bobby," Sam said, "They're not like crazy devil-worshiping witches. Long story short. Everything in the Harry Potter books is true, and these two are witches, witches who went to Hogwarts."

Sam stepped inside as Bobby moved to let the rest of the group in.

"Knew at some point all those trips to hell and purgatory would send you two off the deep end," Bobby muttered.

"They're not crazy," Mara stated in an annoyed voice. It was exhausting trying to convince muggles that wizards and witches exist. Mara had only ever had to do it once before the Winchesters. "Would you like proof?"

"No need," Bobby said, "I trust these two boys." The old man shut the door behind him and took a seat behind the desk at the far end of the room."So what brings ya'll to my doorstep?"

"We've sort of been recruited-" Sam started.

"Ordered." Dean cut in.

"Assigned," Sam continued, giving his brother an annoyed stare, "to help these women find out as much information as possible about the Leviathans."

"So any news Bobby?" Dean asked. He'd already poured himself a small glask of whiskey and took swig.

"Not much really. A few supernatural domestic disturbance calls, but nothing that looks like the work of the Leviathans."

"Have you talked to Cass lately?" Dean asked Bobby.

"Nope, not since last time you were here."

"We should call him and see if he has any ideas."

"Actually, I may be able to help," a low, gravelly voice came from behind Cami and Mara.

Everyone started, and the girls whipped out their wands.

"Dammit Cass!" Dean yelled, "What have I told you?"

Cass stared blankly until it came to him. "Oh you mean the knocking thing."

"Yes Cass! You knock at the door and then come in. You can't just pop in whenever."

"You know this man then?" Mara asked slowly stowing her wand inside her jacket once again, as did Cami.

Sam answered, "Yes. This is Castiel. Castiel this is..."

"Cami Evans and Mara Kelly," Castiel finished.

"How do you know that?" Cami asked intriqued by the man who had suddenly appeared.

"I am an Angel of the Lord."

Mara raised an eyebrow. This man looked more like a beat-up family man working sixty plus hours a week.

"You said you might be able to help?" Bobby inquired.

"Yes. I have discovered that a private meeting about the future of Richard Roman Enterprises will take place in ten days in Detroit."

"But Dick's company went belly-up after he died. It's broke, meaning it doesn't exist," Sam said.

"Which is why that particular meeting would be so suspicious..." Dean nodded as it came to him. If a private meeting was being held about a company that was owned and operated by Leviathans, a company that no longer exists, then said meeting might be a Leviathan meeting-of-the-minds.

"Ten days?" Sam confirmed.

"Yes. The twelfth of September."

"Thanks Cass," Dean said.

"So we form a plan and strategize until then," Mara directed.

"For a week and a half?" Dean gave her a look like she was completely nuts. "We don't really prepare like that."

"And what's your success rate with that strategy?" Mara challenged.

"Pretty damn good. And how's yours? Oh wait..." he mocked, "You two are newbies. We're partnered up with two amateurs."

"I'll show you amateur." Mara reached for her wand.

"Hey Enough!" Bobby hollered and slammed his fist down on the desk in the room. "I feel like I'm babysittin toddler's."

Mara lowered her hand without retrieving the wand, and when she wasn't looking, Dean stuck out his tongue at her.

"Idgits," Bobby mumbled and took a swig of a silver flask that had been in the front pocket of his flannel shirt. "I got a job for you boys," he paused and looked at the two young women, "..and girls anyway. It should only take a couple of days. In the meantime, I'll dig up anything I can find on this meeting Cass is talkin' about."

"And you Cass?" Sam turned to ask the badly shaven, trench coat wearing angel. But he was gone. Nobody had noticed him disappear during the brief Dean/Mara spat.

"That guy's kinda weird," Cami stated, smiling as the group looked around the room to make sure he hadn't just wandered off. From their brief meeting, Cami thought that he was the type of _person? no being_..the type of being that would just wander off at random.

"He's a whole bowl full of crazy," Bobby agreed.

"He's a good guy," Sam vouched for him and Dean nodded.

"So about the job?" Dean asked.

Bobby picked up a piece of paper from his desk. "Found this article online yesterday. Sounds like it's up our ally." He handed the article to Sam. Sam read aloud.

_"Suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of 37 year-old Steve Mitchell have police stumped. From an anonymous source, we have learned that Mr. Mitchell was found strangled on his bedroom floor with no weapon of any kind nearby. All doors and windows to the home were locked, and no forced entry had been found. Mr. Mitchell was married with no children, and Mrs. Mitchell claims she was visiting family in Wisconsin when the incident occurred."_

"When was the guy murdered?" Dean asked.

"The article is dated two days ago."

"I'm not sure about this..." Mara frowned and looked over at her partner, "We're supposed to be focused on hunting Leviathans."

"Well you can stay here if you don't want to come," Dean suggested.

"You'd like that wouldn't you?" Mara narrowed her eyes at him.

Cami shrugged. "We were also instructed to work with these guys. And we kinda need their help. We're not supposed to let them out of our sight."

"Seriously," Dean groaned, "We're not gonna just take off."

"I don't think you will," Cami said. She took the article from Sam to read it herself, "But I'm interested to learn more about how you boys. What's the best word to use? Work?"

"Fine," Mara shrugged, "I'd rather be kicking some evil butt anyway."

"Then let's get on the road." Dean opened the door to leave. "I'm starved anyway. We can get something to eat on the way."

***Hours later***

"Bloody hell. That ride was beastly," Mara groaned, slowly stretching out her arms and legs and back.

Cami did the same. "I have to agree. I don't understand how you can travel in this thing all the time. Are you constantly in pain?"

"Don't worry. You get used to it after the fifth or sixth ride," Dean mocked.

Mara smirked at the surprisingly smart comeback.

"So now what?" Cami asked, looking over at the boys.

"Now we get changed and go do what we do."

"We're coming with," Mara said. She'd be damned if these men tried to keep them from participating in the "job", especially since this was, in a way, the type of thing that Mara and Cami were trained to do.

"We don't have supplies for you," Dean said, opening the trunk to retrieve a couple of bags.

"What part of witches is not getting through to that daft brain of yours?" Mara slammed the trunk shut, so she could look Dean directly in the eyes. "Just tell us what we need to do."

"Fine. You have to impersonate FBI agents."

"FBI?" Cami asked, "As in the Federal Bureau of Investigation?"

"Yes," Sam answered, "But FBI agents are paired. It would be highly highly unusual for a group of four agents to show up at a crime scene...especially with such a low-profile case."

"Alright then. Sam, you and I will go investigate as FBI agents, and Mara and Dean can go check out the crime scene," Cami delegated.

"Why not the other way around?" Dean whined.

"We can't risk you too bickering in front of a stranger. And I'm going with Sam because you just bother me." Dean looked shocked, taken aback by Cami's ruthless statement.

Sam chuckled. Other than himself and Bobby, hardly anyone was so forward with Dean. Both these witches had guts. It was refreshing...a lot like being around Helen and Jo used to be.

"Whatever. Let's just do this," Mara said, not at all thrilled about being paired with the pig-headed older brother.

"We'll need the car." Sam held out his hand for the keys. Dean opened the trunk again and deposited one of the bags. He grabbed a couple of sawed off shotguns and some extra salt pellets. Then he reluctantly handed over the keys.

"We can meet up at the motel at the edge of town," Dean said and watched his brother and the blonde-haired witch get into the front seats of the car and drive off.

**I know this chapter wasn't very exciting, but I already have the next chapter written and waiting to post. There is more excitement in store. :) Please continue to review. I love hearing everyone's thoughts**.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey All! I was hoping to get a few more reviews before posting this chapter, but I was just way too excited. So enjoy...**

Chapter 3- An Officer and A Not-So-Gentle Ghost

Cami and Sam drove to the motel at the edge of town and checked into a couple of rooms. Cami made sure the rooms had an adjoining door, so that her and Mara could keep an eye on the boys. At this point Cami trusted Sam, but she didn't trust Dean completely; and she couldn't be sure whether Sam would take off with Dean if he was determined to go.

Inside her room Cami showered and fixed her hair in a bun at the base of her neck. She also conjured up a professional looking black skirt suit, with a white button down blouse. Unsure of what shoes would be most appropriate she finally settled on a pair of black heels with a 3" heel. Not so short that they looked like they belonged on an old lady, but not so tall that they would be impossible to run in if the situation called for it. Once she was ready, Cami knocked on the door that adjoined to the room Sam was getting dressed in.

He opened the door, and Cami was left slightly breathless at the man standing in front of her. Sam had showered and done his hair. Plus he was no longer wearing grungy jeans and a worn denim jacket, but instead sported a neatly pressed black business suit with a bright white shirt and a skinny black tie.

Sam also silently admired Cami's new attire. Once Cami's brain began to function properly again, she stepped back. "Is this alright?"

Sam came out of his momentary stupor as well. "Uh. Yeah. Look's great." He look down at the shiny watch he was now wearing on his wrist. "And it's already six-thirty. We'd better get over to the police station."

"Right." Cami walked over and grabbed her wand and phone and an i.d. that she had also conjured after Sam showed her what an FBI badge looked like, and she tucked them inside her suit jacket. Then she joined Sam in his room, and they headed out.

When Sam and Cami reached the police station, a young police officer was seated at the front desk.

"Can I help you?" The dark-haired, clean-shaven officer asked as they approached.  
Sam reached for his badge and held it out for the officer to examine. Cami followed suit.

"I'm Agent Green and this is my partner Agent McVie." Cami glanced down at the officer's nametag. _Officer Ford_.

Officer Ford inspected their badges suspiciously. "We weren't expecting the FBI."

Cami listened as Sam countered his words of doubt with ease. "Yes. We were in a nearby town just finishing up a case. Our supervisor asked us to swing through and look into the Mitchell case."

"I see," Officer Ford said. He obviously wasn't convinced. He eyed the man and woman standing in front of him. "Aren't you a little young to be an agent?" the officer asked Cami.

Cami's eyes grew wide in surprise. She knew she had to think fast. She composed herself and spoke. "Yes I am. Youngest academy graduated since '78. And if I were you, I wouldn't question my abilities. Now may we speak to the detective in charge of the Mitchell case, or do we need to take this up with your superior?" The words came out smooth and firm, thankfully. Inside, Cami's heart was racing and her body temperature felt like it had risen at least ten degrees.

Officer Ford looked stunned. He fumbled to get out from behind the desk, knocking papers to the floor in the process. "This way." He turned and began leading the two down a hall full of office doors.

As they walked, Cami looked over at Sam, and he caught her eye with an amused look on his face. She smiled and quickly moved her eyes forward once more. The officer stopped in front of a door. On the door the name read: _Detective William Boyd_.

Officer Ford knocked.

"Come in," a rough voice belted from inside.

Officer Ford opened the door and stepped in, allowing Sam and Cami to slide in next to him.

"Sir, these agents wanted to to speak with. They're with the FBI."

"Really?"

"Yes sir," Sam confirmed.

"They have identification?" Detective Boyd asked his inferior.

"Yes sir. I've already seen it."

"Alright then. You may return to your post."

Officer Ford nodded and left, closing the door behind him.

"Well agent...?"

"Green and this is Agent McVie."

"How may I help you?" The detective motioned to some empty red chairs across from his desk as he sunk down in his black, leather desk chair.

"We were asked to look into the Mitchell case since we were just finishing up a case in the area."

"I see. Well, unfortunately agents, I'm afraid your time here may be in vain. This case is unlike anything I've ever dealt with before."

"And how is that detective?" Cami piped up.

"I have absolutely no leads. Don't get me wrong, plenty of people disliked and even hated the man. But every one of their alibis have checked out. Not to mention, I have no idea how an attacker could have even gotten in the house. Every door and window in the place was locked. The M.E. report determined death as exfixiation by strangulation, but there was no weapon."

"And you have no more leads? No more suspects?"

"Not right now." The detective looked tired. His suit was wrinkled and he had a thick patch of stubble coating his face. He'd probably been working on this case for the past two days without any rest.

"Is there any pertinent information to the case, that was not made known to the public and that wouldn't be in the M.E.'s report?" Sam asked.

The detective shook his head in frustration. "The only thing I can think of is that the victim's wife and him were in the beginning process of a divorce. Honestly, when I found that out, I figured she had to be the killer. But her alibi is firm."

Sam stood and Cami did as well. "Well, thank you for your time Detective," Sam held out his hand to shake it. The detective took it and then reached over to shake Cami's hand. "I think my partner and I would like to look into this just a bit more before reporting back to the Agency," Sam continued, "Would we be able to take a look at the body?

The detective nodded. "Fine. I'll phone the coroner and let him know you are coming. He should still be in the office. Our coroner has his office attached to the mortuary on 3rd Street."

"Thank you Detective," Cami said and led Sam out of the office and out of the Police Station. She took a deep breath the moment they stepped out into the fresh air of the fall evening.

The world outside had taken on a reddish-orange glow as the sun sat close to the horizon. And the air was cool and crisp. Sam got the same amused look on his face as inside the police station. "I'm impressed. Have you done this before?"

"No never! I have no idea where that came from." Cami laughed. "It sure was exciting though."

"Well we're not done yet." Sam walked over to the car and unlocked the doors.

Cami nodded to herself and climbed into the passenger seat. They drove until they found the coroners. As they parked, Sam put an arm out to prevent Cami from getting out.

"What?" Cami asked, not sure what to think of this unexpected invasion of personal space.

"Before we go inside, have you ever seen a dead body?" Sam asked.

"Oh," Cami understood. He didn't want her to ruin their act by freaking out when they got inside and looked at the body. "Yeah. I've seen a couple of them. It's part of our training as an Auror."

"Okay." Sam pulled back his hand and got out of the car.

They entered through the door that was labeled: _Dr. Joseph Tremmell, Waseca County Coroner._ The sickly smell of chemicals and latex filled the building. Sam rang a bell that sat at an empty front desk, and a small, bald middle-aged man with thick-rimmed glasses emerged from a set of metal double-doors behind the desk.

"You must be the FBI Agents that Detective Boyd called about."

"Yes sir," Sam affirmed.

"For procedures sake, may i see some Identification?"

The man adjusted his glasses as Cami and Sam presented their badges. After a brief examination, the man nodded, and the witch and her muggle companion replaced the badges back in their jackets.

"Follow me," the man said and led them through the metal doors into the back. He opened up a door on the cadaver refrigeration unit and pulled out a slab with a middle-aged man lying lifeless and now quite void of color.

"I present Mr. Steven Mitchell," The bald-headed coroner said.

"We haven't had an opportunity to read the report yet, but Detective Boyd said that you determined he died from strangulation?"

The man nodded. "He had bruises around his neck as though he was strangled. They look kind of like hands, but with the size of the markings, that just couldn't be possible. Someone with such slender fingers wouldn't have the strength to cause those bruises."

Sam nodded. "Anything else unusual."

"'fraid not. The man was otherwise as healthy as I would expect a stressed-out, over-worked attorney to be."

Cami looked closer at the markings on the man's neck. They did look like two sets of fingers. Perhaps about the length of Mara's but much, much thinner.

"Well, thank you for your time Dr. Tremmell," Sam said, "If we have anymore questions, we'll be in touch."

"Anytime." The man slid Mr. Mitchell's body back into his slot and shut the door.

Cami turned with Sam and they exited through the front.

"So waddya think?" Cami asked as they got into the car. The sun had set now, and the stars were making an appearance in the dark blue night sky above.

Sam flicked on the headlights and pulled away from the front of the coroner's. "It definitely looks like it could be a malevolent spirit. Hopefully Dean and Mara got some more for us to go on. How long has it been since we left them back at the house?"

Cami looked at her watch. "Hour and a half."

After a couple of blocks, Sam's phone rang.

***An hour & a half earlier back at the Mitchell home***

"Here." Dean held out a shotgun for Mara.

"What do you want me to do with that?" She eyed the gun apprehensively.

"I want you to carry it, and if we run into any ghosts or spirits. I want you to shoot at it."

"A shot gun? No thanks. I have my wand." Mara patted her jacket pocket where her wand rested.

"Have you ever dealt with normal ghosts who weren't wizards or witches?"

"Well...no. That's not really what we do."

"Then humor me." Dean held the gun out further.

"What's in it? It can't be normal bullets."

Dean sighed. "Salt pellets. Now just take the damn thing."

After a moments more hesitation, Mara took the gun. "I've never used one of these."

Dean demonstrated. "Point and pull the trigger. Aim for the torso, and you're unlikely to miss. Got it?"

"Yes."

Mara looked across the street at the large estate. A tall brick wall surrounded the property with a single iron gate for an entrance.

"Can you get us through the gate?" Dean asked, trying to make it sound more like curiosity than a request.

Mara smirked. _Why was this guy so difficult? Had the we not agreed to all of their plans. Had we not helped him and his brother fight an evil creature and save their lives?_

"Of course I can. But I'm curious..." she glanced over at Dean. "How would you Sam have done it without magic?

"We'd have figured out a way to break in," Dean said, "It would take longer, but it would work. We usually just wing it."

"That comes as no surprise." Mara smirked.

The pair walked across the street, and Mara opened the gate with the Alohamora spell. Dean pushed open the iron doors which led to a driveway at least a quarter mile long. The yard around them was bright green and perfectly mown in diagonals.

Dean and Mara trudged up the driveway to an enormous white mansion, complete with pillars and tall, draped windows.

"What was this guy?" Dean ogled.

"Someone making a lot of money."

"Or in a lot of debt," Dean added.

The front door to the house was blocked off with crime scene tape. Dean opened the door and ducked underneath the tape. Mara didn't.

"Dean. Wait?" Mara had started to grow nervous on the way up. She'd realized that Dean, while agonizingly arrogant, was right about her and Cami being newbies. And unfortunately, without an adrenaline kick, Mara's nerves were on overdrive.

"What now?" Dean asked impatiently.

For the first time in a conversation with the eldest Winchester brother, Mara spoke calmly and without any accusation or malice. "I need to know that before we go in there that I can really trust you."

And then a rare event occurred. Dean looked understanding. "Yes. You can trust me. Now let's go." He waved Mara in. She relaxed a tiny bit, and climbed under the tape as well.

Mara and Dean walked through the the atrium and into the adjacent sitting room. The rooms looked like they had jumped right out of a Good Housekeeping magazine. The furniture was polished and beautiful. The floors and windows shined. Every color in the rugs and shades and even the flowers set about the place matched perfectly.

"How can people live like this?" Mara said, pondering her surroundings, "The only evidence anybody actually even lives here is a few wedding photos."

"I guess when you have money, you have to keep up appearances." For only the second time since he'd met her, Dean found himself agreeing with the young witch. A life like this was definitely not something he wanted.

"I may lose all credibility here, but I don't actually know how to kill a ghost, " Mara admitted, trying to will the blood away fro, her cheeks.

"Are you serious? You came ghost hunting and you don't even know what you're doing?"

"I know a couple of spells that would most likely incapacitate a ghost, but I'm not aware of any methods to kill one. It's not really a problem in our world. The ghosts we deal with are all civilized."

"No evil spirits? Or poltergeists?" Dean doubted that.

"No," Mara shook her head. "Witches and wizards have to choose to be ghosts. They usually do so because they are scared of the unknown in whatever lies ahead when we die. And poltergeists are not ghosts, not where we come from...just annoying pranksters."

"Well things are a bit different in the muggle world."

"Muggle world?. You do know about us then. You have read the books haven't you?" Mara was smiling widely

"No," Dean said, lowering his voice to a low mumble, "I watched the movies."

"The movies?" Mara was entertained at the thought of tough-guy Dean vegging-out in front of the television, watching a bunch of Harry Potter movies. She continued looking around the world and picked up a wedding photo, admiring the beautiful couple. Steven Mitchell looked to be about thirty or thirty-five in the picture. His wife though looked about Mara's age, definitely not any older than twenty-one.

"How old was this guy? Thirty-seven correct?" Mara asked.

"Yeah. Why?" Dean had pulled out a machine that clicked as he held it at arms length and walked it around the room.

"Look at this." Mara walked the wedding photo over to Dean.

Dean glanced down at it. "It's a wedding photo. So?"

"Look at the age difference."

"Yeah? What about it?"

"She's at least ten years younger than him. Probably fifteen. So a very rich man...thiry-seven years old...and we're looking for an evil spirit that targeted him. You think a guy like that had any other women in his past?"

Dean picked up on the lead. "Probably dozens. Maybe even a wife or two."

Mara placed the picture back on the table.

"There'd be proof of that somewhere. We need to find his office." Dean and led Mara around the first floor, but all they found was a kitchen, dining room, two bathrooms, a four-seasons room, and a laundry room. Then they headed up the big, wooden staircase that led to the second floor. The two found his office at the end of the hall. It was locked as was every drawer and cabinet inside of it.

"He definitely didn't want anyone poking around in here," Dean said as he jimmied open one of the desk drawers.

"You know...I could do that. It would take less time," Mara offered.

"Thanks but no thanks. Gotta keep my skills sharp." The drawer popped loose as he said it.

Mara turned and unlocked a large metal filing cabinet. She began rifling through files. They were all marked with numbers and names. Mara pulled out a random file and opened it up. A lot of it looked like gibberish to her, but there was enough to understand what each file was. "I think I know what it is that Mr. Mitchell did."

Dean looked up. "What?"

"Divorce attorney." Mara continued fingering through the names. "And if I'm not mistaken, one that has a lot of high-profile clients. There's movie stars, music mogles, CEOs of large companies..."

"Really?..." The cogs in Dean's brain began turning. People took him for granted, believing he was a little slow at times. But in truth, he was a very good problem-solver. He had broken just as many cases as Sam had during their hunting trips. _A divorce attorney being haunted...maybe a client_. "Do any of those cases stick out to you? Are there any that he lost?"

Mara opened up each file and began looking at the verdict while Dean continued searching the rest of the room. It wasn't until Mara got to the bottom drawer that she reached a handful of files in which the verdict went against Mr. Mitchell and his clients. "I found some. This drawer is all losses for Mr. Mitchell."

"Alright. Grab them and let's get out of here. We can look over them back at the motel." Mara found an empty cardboard box in the corner of the room and started shoving files into the box. As she placed the last one in the box, the clicking machine in Dean's pocket grew louder and clicked faster.

"Dammit!" Dean growled. "Incoming!"

It took Mara a fraction of a second to realize what his words meant. The lights in the room flickered off, and the only source of light became moon shining in through the window. Mara reached out for the gun that she had set on the floor beside the file cabinet, but before she could get to it a tiny, but incredibly strong, grey hand wrapped itself around her wrist. Mara looked up and found herself face to face with the angry-looking ghost of a young woman who, with her free arm, backhanded Mara and sent Mara flying into corner of the desk. A sharp pain pierced the back of Mara's head, but she willed herself not to cry out and to stay focused on what was happening. Dean shot the gun at the ghost who had turned to descend on him. The bullet caused the ghost to disappear in a whisp of smoke.

"That's only temporary," Dean warned and grabbed Mara's arm to pull her to her feet. The room spun around her, but she managed to steady herself.

"The box," Mara mumbled.

Dean grabbed it and gripped it between his left side and his arm. "We need to get out of here. Fast. Get the door."

Mara nodded and moved as quickly as she could to the door. She pulled out her wand and unlocked it. Dean and Mara ran down the hall to the staircase. By that time, the spirit had time to reform. This time she looked absolutely furious. Her dark hair was spread wildly about the pale sunk-in skin of her face, and her eyes pierced with rage. She had positioned herself a couple of feet off the ground at the top of the staircase.

"Glisseo!" Mara yelled, pointing her wand at the staircase, and she pulled Dean behind her, ducking past the ghost. Dean was caught by surprise as he and Mara slid down a steep slide which had previously been the staircase.

Thinking fast, Dean twisted around as they reached the bottom and took another shot at the ghost. She was too fast. She disappeared and reappeared right between Dean and Mara.

"Reducto!" Mara hollered as she aimed at the living room couch. The explosion distracted the ghost just long enough for Dean to get a good shot, and then he shoved Mara out the door ahead of him. Mara and Dean raced down the driveway and outside the gate as fast as their feet would carry them.

"Will she follow us?" Mara asked nervously. Glancing behind her.

"Don't worry," Dean said as he noticed her anxious state, "She won't be able to leave the property. Let's head back into town. I'm sure it won't be hard to find the motel."

"Okay," Mara stood, and the two began walking through the residential part of Janesville, heading in the direction of what they hoped was main street.

After four or five blocks, the world around Mara suddenly began spinning again."Woah." she mutter and sat down on the ground, placing her head between her knees.

"What's up?" Dean asked crouching down beside her, setting the box on the ground.

"Dizzy."

Dean examined her which is when he noticed the blood on the back of her neck and back. He looked closer to find the source and discovered a huge gash in the center of the back of her head.

"Okay. I'm gonna call Sam. We'll get you patched up."

"Patched up?" Mara mumbled not bothering to pick up her head. Right now it felt like too much work.

"Yeah. Just don't go to sleep. Got it?"

"Sure. No sleeping."

Dean dialed his phone. "Hey Sammy. Gonna need some wheels here. Mara's not gettin back to the motel on her own."

"She'll be fine. We just need a ride. We're on the corner of 22nd and Welsh."

Dean hung up the phone. And Mara finally lifted her head to look at him.

"What's wrong?" Mara asked. She wasn't thinking straight enough to realize that the sharp pain on the back of her head was causing the problem.

"You've got a nasty gash on the back of your head."

"Oh." Mara reached back to feel for it, but Dean grabbed her hand.

"You don't want it to get infected."

"I can close it up." She pulled out her wand and thought for a second. Something in her brain wasn't working right at the moment. She was having trouble remembering the spell to close a wound. "I know this..."

"Head wounds...they'll do that to ya." Dean smiled. "I bet that partner of yours can get it closed up. I can too, but my way is a lot more painful."

"You get hurt a lot on your jobs?" Mara asked.

"Occupational hazard. But the scars make for a good conversation starter."

Mara snickered and shook her head. The spinning started again. "Ohhhh bad idea," she groaned and rested her head on her knees once more.

Dean took a moment to appreciate the fact that Mara had let her guard down in front of him. She'd started to soften a bit while they were back at the mansion, but it wasn't until this moment that she'd let any real weakness or sensitivity show. _Of course she is injured and can't think straight at the moment._

Suddenly, a set of headlights flooded over the two and Cami and Sam got out of the big black Impala.

"Mara! Are you alright?" Cami ran over and crouched down next to Mara.

"Not really," she murmured, "I can't remember the spell to close a wound. And I'm quite dizzy also."

Cami pulled out her wand. "Vulnera Sanentur. Vulnera Sanentur," she sang. The spell sealed the deep cut on the back of Mara's head.

"Let's get you back to the motel."

Sam waited for everyone to get in and then climbed back into the driver's seat as Dean stuffed the box of files between Cami and Mara in the backseat.

"What happened?" Sam asked.

"The ghost made an appearance while we were going through some of the guys work files. Luckily, we got what we wanted," Dean explained.

"The box?"

"Yeah," Dean answered, "We'll go through them back at the motel. What'd you guys find out?"

"Well, the wife was telling the truth. She was in Wisconsin at the time of the murder, and one thing that the police managed to keep out of the tabloids was that he and his wife were separated, and in the process of starting on the divorce papers."

"And tell him about the body," Cami said eagerly from the back seat.

Sam nodded, "And we had a look at Mr. Mitchell's body."

"And?" Dean urged.

"And there was a bruise on his neck. Looked like a set of handprints."

"Figures."

Sam pulled the car into the parking lot of a tiny run-down motel.

"Oh good," Mara sighed, "Bed."

"Not yet," Dean told her, "You need to stay awake for another couple of hours at least."

"Ughhh," Mara groaned, "But I'm so tired."

"Yeah. Well suck it up woman," Dean said as he got out. Dean walked around to Mara's door. He opened it and helped her out, supporting her as they walked over to their rooms. He helped her inside.

Sam and Cami got out and watched their partners.

"Well that's a bit unexpected," Sam uttered in surprise.

"I definitely prefer that to the constant bickering," Cami smiled, and she reached in for the box of files before closing her door.

"Don't let her fall asleep," Dean instructed Cami after depositing Mara on the bed farthest from the door.

"Don't worry about me. I'm just gonna take a shower," Mara said, flopping back on the bed.

"We'll be going through these." Sam took the box of files from Cami.

"We can help also," Cami volunteered.

"After I shower," Mara raised her hand in the air. The three still standing looked over at her in amusement.

"You sure we shouldn't take her to the E.R.?" Sam asked the other two, "She seems pretty..."

"Not herself," Cami finished.

"She'll be fine Sammy," Dean said, "She's actually a pretty tough chick."

"Yes! I am a tough chicken." Mara agreed loudly.

Dean and Sam both grinned, holding back laughter.

"Well then we'll be over after Mara is showered and after I can get out of this suit." Cami pushed the boys over to the door that led directly to their room.

"Adjoining rooms Sammy?" Dean looked appaulingly at the door.

Sam shrugged. "Hey. If it'll keep the peace."

"Yeah. yeah," Dean lolled and pulled open the door.

Once the boys were behind the closed door, Cami turned to check on her partner. "You still awake Mara?"

"Still awake." Mara stood straight up and headed for the bathroom. "And now I will be going to take a shower. My hair is caked with blood, and I feel like I have a weeks worth of sweat on me."

"You kinda smell like it," Cami said jokingly.

"Ha ha." Mara shook off her jacket and hung it up, but not before retrieving a small pouch from the pocket. The bathroom door closed, and Cami heard the water turn on.

Cami retrieved her own pouch from the jacket she'd hung up earlier in the day. After Harry Potter became head of the Auror office, he had made it a rule that at all times, Aurors had a weeks worth of travel supplies and clothes packed in a pouch that was small enough to fit inside their jacket pocket. This made it easier to do the job without hauling around large amounts of luggage.

Cami reached in and pulled out a pair of grey sweatpants and a Ravenclaw t-shirt. She stepped out of the suit and placed it neatly inside the small pouch, then stepped into the much less sexy, but much more comfortable clothing. She opted to wait to take off her makeup until later not that she usually wore much, just some foundation and a bit of mascara and lip gloss. But she did pull all the bobby pins out of her bun, so that it was now just a low set ponytail.

It wasn't much longer after that Mara emerged from the bathroom, clad in a pink tank top and a pair of capri-length black sweatpants. She threw her wet towel on the floor of the bathroom and grabbed a brush from her pouch to run through her hair. Once she'd finished, she set the pouch on her bed and knocked on the door to the boys' room. Cami stood behind her.

"It's unlocked," Sam's voice called from behind the door.

Mara pushed it open and the women stepped into the room. Sam and Dean were seated at the small table in the corner of the room on the chairs pouring over the files from Mr. Mitchell's office.

"Feeling any better?" Sam asked Mara.

"Less dizzy. Still tired. And my head is killing me!"

Dean chuckled.

"Something funny?" Mara scowled at him.

Cami looked over at Sam and rolled her eyes. He smiled back, shaking his head.

_Back to the complaining and arguing, and for a second I thought they'd had some sort of a breakthrough_. Cami thought.

"Find anything yet?" Cami asked.

Sam shook his head and held out a file for each of the women. "Not yet. But we just got started."

A few hours later Mara pulled out her fifth file and opened it up. "Look at this," she cried out, grabbing the other three's attention. She set the file out on the bed in front of her. "This case. It was Mr. Mitchell's own divorce back in 2008 to a woman named Jessica Yates. And he lost his own divorce settlement. She got half of all his assets, and a monthly stipend for ten years equalling half of his income. But see here. The address of the house that she got is the same as the one that we were just at tonight."

"So what maybe their was another trial, and that judge ruled differently?" Cami suggested.

"No," Sam said, "Highly unlikely. These cases very rarely, if ever, return to the courtroom."

"Okay, well then let's look up Miss Jessica Yates." Dean flipped open the computer sitting next to him at the table and typed the name and the town's name in the search engine. He clicked on one of the websites that popped up.

"This might explain why hubby still has the house." He turned the computer so everyone else could see the screen. There was an article along with a photo of the woman. "Look familiar Mara?"

The woman in the picture was definitely the ghost that had attacked Dean and Mara back at the mansion. Jessica was smiling and looked much healthier in the picture, with glossy black hair, a healthy glow, and gentle blue eyes, but Mara had no doubt that the ghost was indeed Jessica Yates.

"Does it say how she died?" Cami asked.

Sam turned the computer towards himself and read. "They ruled it an accident. Listen to this. They claim she accidentally locked herself in a closet while her husband was out of town on business for a week. She died of dehydration."

"How often does something like that happen?" Dean wondered aloud.

"I can't think of ever hearing anything like it."

"Okay then, where's she buried?" Dean asked.

"Why do you need to know where she's buried?" Cami asked.

"That's how you kill a ghost. You salt and burn it's remains," Sam explained as he continued reading. "She was cremated. No bones."

"So we need to find whatever is keeping her here," Dean said.

"Like what?" Cami asked.

"Any piece of DNA," Sam explained, "It could be anything that still has hair or skin cells or even blood still on it, that she is using to tie herself to this world."

"So how do you figure out what it is?" Mara asked.

"Tomorrow morning we get back out there and do more research...talk to people. You and Dean can head to the library and look in old newspapers and records, see if you can find out anything more. Cami and I will go out as Agents Green and McVie again and talk to some folks."

"Green and McVie. 'Atta boy Sammy"

"Like you coulda done better."

Sam rolled his eyes.

They shoved all the files back into the box. Dean kept the file about Jessica out, and the women returned to their room to turn in.

"You know they aren't so bad to have on a case with us," Sam said as he shut down the computer.

"Yeah, you say that because you like that Cami chick," Dean said pulling back the covers on his bed.

"Waddya mean like her? LIKE her, like her?"

"What are we twelve?" Dean scoffed. He kicked off his shoes. "I mean you've obviously got a thing for witch. Not that I'm judging too harshly. She's not bad compared to some of your previous choices in female companions."

"Whatever," Sam grunted and got into his own bed, "I do not have a thing for her. We're just working with the witches until they get the information they need about the Leviathans. And I figured I might as well make the best of it."

"You keep tellin' yourself that little brother." Dean smirked. He knew exactly what to look for when his brother was starting to fall for a girl. Number one on the list: Sam looked fascinated by the woman. And Sam had definitely displayed complete fascination with Cami.

"'Night Dean," Sam closed the subject and rolled over in bed, thinking about how right Dean was. He hated when Dean was right.

**So tell me what ya'll thought. I love reading all your reviews and hearing from all you fanfic lovers! :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello readers. I apologize for taking so long to update. Work kept me from doing any writing over the weekend. I wanted to thank the following readers for their comments:highlander348, kindleflame5, and musicalgryffindor. I enjoy all the feedback and the ideas. :) Well, enjoy...**

Chapter 4: Kiss Kiss Curse Curse

The witches and the Winchesters all woke early thanks to the motel's eastern facing windows and thin curtains. Mara blinked her eyes open, less than happy to find that her headache was just as bad as it had been the night before. Since she didn't have the option of going to a Healer nearby, she'd have to make due with some muggle form of pain management.

As Mara sat up, Cami stirred in the bed next to her.

"What time is it?" Cami groaned, shielding her eyes from a thick band of of sunlight peeking through the curtains.

Mara looked over at the dim digital clock on the bedside table.

"Seven o'clock."

"Lovely," Cami muttered, slamming a pillow over her head.

Mara got out of bed and walked over to the bathroom. She hurried through her morning routine and was dressed and ready in twenty minutes.

"Alright Cams. Outta bed. Up up." Mara hit her partners foot.

"Fine." Cami rolled out of bed and headed into the bathroom to take a shower. And twenty minutes after that, Cami was ready as well. At seven forty-five, Mara knocked on the door to the boys' room.

"Just a second," Sam yelled out. He was just finishing up tying his shoes and Dean was still in the bathroom. Sam finished and answered the door.

"Morning."

"Morning," Cami and Mara greeted in unison.

Just then Dean walked out of the bathroom, donning only a towel around his waist. When he spotted the girls he quickly retreated and slammed the bathroom door.

"Sam!" he yelled, "Warn a guy next time. Will ya?"

Sam smiled and the two witches giggled. "How about we meet you guys out front in ten?" Cami suggested.

"Sounds good," Sam agreed, still sounding amused.

Mara and Cami escaped back into their room and packed up their belongings just in case they would need to get out of town quickly. You never knew as an auror (or at the present moment as a auror/demon hunter).

Ten minutes later, the foursome piled into the Impala and headed down the street to a small diner for some breakfast.

"So where are we going first?" Cami asked Sam. The two were clad in their suits again. Though today, Cami had fastened her hair into a French twist.

"I thought we'd start at the soup kitchen in town. The article said Jessica was very involved with community service and that was one of the volunteer jobs listed in her obituary."

"And we get to spend the morning doing research. Yay!" Dean droned sarcastically.

"I'm getting an even worse headache, just thinking about it it," Mara complained. She couldn't help but be jealous that her partner got to go do field work this morning.

After breakfast, Sam and Cami drove to the local soup kitchen. Inside a couple of volunteers bustled around preparing food for lunch.

Sam approached one of the volunteers, a young woman who was cutting vegetables at a prep table in the center of the kitchen. Cami trailed close behind, taking in the surroundings, perhaps to see if she could spot anything useful. The kitchen was pretty typical. All the counters, sinks, and tables were metal. There were shelves stuffed with pots, pans, dishes, and silverware. Cami spotted a large walk-in refrigerator and a equally large pantry area overflowing with cans, bags, and boxes of food.

"Good Morning," Sam said to the woman. She looked up from her vegetables, not having noticed their entrance.

"Good Morning?" She glanced nervously over at the middle-aged man setting tables in the dining room, but he was too busy to notice.

"We apologize for the intrusion. I'm Agent Green with the FBI." Sam held out his badge for the woman to see. Cami pulled out hers too."And this is my partner Agent McVie."

The woman looked at the badges and visibly relaxed. She even smiled. "Well I'm Sara Williams. How can I help you Agent Green?"

"We're investigating the death of Steven Mitchell. And we were just doing a bit of looking into his past. We found out his previous wife Jessica Yates volunteered here on a regular basis. Did you ever work here with her?"

"Of course," the woman answered, "I used to work with Jessica almost everyday."

"Could you tell me what she was like? Her friends? Was she happy?"

Sara frowned. "That depends. I've known her since high school. We weren't very good friends during school, but she had plenty of them. She was pleasant to be around though, as long as she wasn't with her clique. She started working here after she graduated. We became friends then, even hung out outside of work and volunteering here. But then she married Steven . For awhile she was glowing all the time. But then she didn't have time to hang out. She cut back her volunteer hours. And when she was here, she didn't seem right. She definitely didn't seem happy, and then that horrible accident." Sara shook her head. Her lip even trembled a bit. "I still can't help but feel guilty. When she didn't show up to the kitchen twice in a row, I should have gone to check on her."

Cami gave Sara a empathetic look, "You mustn't blame yourself. You can't know what would or could have happened. I'm sure you were a wonderful friend, and that's what matters."

"Thank you for saying that." Sara wiped at her eyes.

Sam took a second to let the girl compose herself. "Did you ever meet Mr. Mitchell?"

"Yeah. A few times."

"What was he like?"

She shrugged. "He seemed nice enough, busy a lot with his work. But when him and Jessica were together, you could tell that he was crazy about her."

Sam nodded. Just then Cami spotted a bunch of pictures on the wall by the phone. She noticed a picture of Jessica and another woman laughing with they're arms around each other. The girl was shorter than Jessica and had a perfect tan and long, straight platinum blonde hair.

"Who is that?" Cami asked. She walked over to the picture and pointed to the girl.

Sara's look turned sour. "That's Denise Collins. She was Jessica's best friend, up until Jessica and Steven's wedding. Then they had a falling out. Jessica would never tell me why, and I didn't try to push it."

"You didn't like her much?" Cami asked.

"No. I didn't. She was the epitome of mean girls in high school, and after we graduated it didn't get any better."

"Why is there a picture of her up here?"

"She'd volunteer here occasionally. She obviously hated it. She constantly made fun of the people who come in here. The only reason that girl volunteered for anything was to build up her ego."

Cami stared at the picture. The girls in it seemed perfectly normal and happy, nothing out of the ordinary.

"Well thank you for your time Miss Williams. We'll let you get back to work."

"No problem at all. You have a nice day, and if I can help in any other way please let me know."

Cami and Sam walked out into the cool fall day, and got into the Impala. "So whaddya think?" Sam asked.

"I don't know. Maybe we should find out more about Jennifer's friend Denise?"

"Yeah. We could see if that leads anywhere."

***At the Town Library***

"Anything yet?" Mara asked Dean.

"No," he grumbled, leaning back so hard in his chair that the front legs momentarily lifted off the ground. "Nothing."

Mara clicked on her computer screen, opening up another newspaper. The two had spent the past hour searching through articles in newspapers. Jessica had been mentioned in the newspaper quite a bit for community service, events, performances, etc.

Mara looked at the next page that popped-up. On it there was an article announcing the high-school cheerleaders putting on a car wash to raise money for the football team. There was a picture of the squad, and sitting beside Jessica in the front row was Mr. Mitchell's current wife.

"I may have found something!" Mara whispered excitedly.

Dean rolled his chair right next to Mara and leaned in to look at the screen.

"Jackpot," Dean said, printing off the article. "The old Mrs. And the new Mrs. went to high-school together."

Mara grabbed the hard copy of the article.

"What year is that?" Dean asked.

Mara checked the date on the article. "2007."

"We need to look at yearbooks." Dean stood up and walked over to the front desk with Mara right behind him.

"Excuse me," Dean asked the little old lady sitting at the front desk, clicking the mouse on her computer screen.

"Yes?" She asked without even looking up.

"Where do you keep high-school yearbooks?"

"Back right corner, near the Encyclopedias."

Dean turned in that direction. Mara waited and looked down at the librarian. "Thank you," she said.

"You're welcome dear." The lady looked up and smiled at her.

Mara caught up to Dean and whacked him on the shoulder.

"What now?" he whined.

"You should learn some manners. You're what? Like fifty or something?" Mara scolded.

Dean scowled, "Thirty-four."

"Hmmm." Mara knew he wasn't anywhere near fifty, but she thought he looked damn good for thirty-four, especially considering he spent most of his life eating horrible food and not getting enough sleep.

Dean found the yearbooks and pulled out the one for 2007-2008. He began flipping through and found the cheerleading page. "Her name is Denise Collins."

Mara reached out and flipped back a couple of pages. "I think I saw something...Yes! There." She pointed at a picture on the Fall Ball pictures. In it stood Denise and Jessica posing with their backs to one another and there hands shaped to look like guns.

Dean didn't say anything but kept flipping through pages. They found nine more pictures with Denise and Jessica together."

"We need to take this with us," Dean stuffed the yearbook inside his jacket and rushed out of the library with Mara keeping step beside him.

Dean pulled out his cell phone. "We may have something. Apparently Denise Mitchell, Steven Mitchell's current wife was also Jessica's best friend."

***On the other side of town***

"Yeah we know. We're trying to track down Denise. We're headed to her sister's house now. We'll catch up with you guys later."

Sam hung up the phone as they pulled into the driveway of a small town home. It was painted blue, just like every third or fourth house in the neighborhood.

"This looks cozy," Cami noted sarcastically.

Sam chuckled. "You don't like the picket fence gig?"

"Oh no. It's not that at all. I'm a country girl. Grew up in a house where our nearest neighbor was over a mile away. I don't like being boxed up in a place like a bunch of sardines. Unfortunately, I don't really have much of a choice right now. A small flat is all I can really afford." Cami gave a half-smile as they walked up the steps

"At least you have a place to call home," Sam said, and he knocked on the door.

A woman about the same height as Cami, though much thinner and with dark brown hair, answered the door. She had on a pink jogging suit and tennis shoes, and a small terrier ran in circles around her feet, panting because it was so excited at the house guests.

"Can I help you?" the woman asked.

"Are you Janice Larson?"

"I am." She answered reluctantly.

"I apologize for the intrusion. I am Agent Green with the FBI and this is my partner Agent McVie." The two flashed their badges.

"What can I do for you? Agents?" Her expression grew cold.

"We were wondering if your sister Denise was here?" Sam asked.

"I'm afraid not. She's at a sewing club meeting this morning." The phone rang inside the house. "You'll have to stop by tomorrow morning if you want to talk to her. Now if you'll excuse me-" And Janice slammed the front door in Sam's and Cami's faces.

"Okay then." Sam uttered in surprise.

"That was odd," Cami said and turned to leave.

"Just a second..." Sam walked over to one of the front windows and peeked in. He could just see through to the kitchen where Mrs. Larson stood at the sink talking on the phone. Sam noticed a tattoo, just barely exposed between the bottom of her jogging suit jacket and the top of her pants. Suddenly, she turned and looked directly at him, boring her eyes into his. After a second, he ducked out from in front of the window, grabbed Cami's hand and hurried her down to the car. They got in and sped back to the motel where Dean and Mara were waiting impatiently for them. Dean was watching a rerun of some Sci-Fi show while Mara was taking notes in a notepad.

"That was fast," Dean said, turning off the televison as he sat upright on the bed.

"The sister didn't say much. But I did notice an odd tattoo on her back," Sam said. He grabbed a piece of paper from the table and a pen and sketched out a line of symbols made of smaller lines and half-circles.

"How could you have possibly remembered all those symbols?" Cami asked, amazed that with just a quick glance, Sam had memorized an entire word (or what she figured was a word) in some foreign language.

"Are you saying that I don't know what I saw?" Sam accused Cami. He glared up at the blonde witch.

"No," she smiled hiding how stunned she was by his accusation, "It's just...well I couldn't remember all that with just one quick glance."

"I see." Sam jumped up, his voice increasing in volume. "So you think that I can't do anything better than you. You think that I'm stupid.."

"What are you talking about Sam?" Cami took a few steps back nervously, not sure whether this was some sort of joke or a test.

"Are you scared?" Sam gave a mean smile. "I thought you witches weren't scared of anything."

Cami pulled out her wand. "Sam stop it. You're frightening me."

"Good!" He yelled. "You should be frightened. How could you ever think that I would work with a disgusting, evil witch like you."

Mara drew her wand too.

"Sam. What the hell?" Dean stepped in front of Sam and shoved him. Sam lost his balance for a moment, but shoved Dean back, who then knocked over Mara.

"Dean! Dammit!" Mara cursed.

"Sam stop this right now. If this is some sort of joke...?" Cami kept her ground and kept her wand aimed at Sam.

"I'm not joking. I don't know how I could have ever trusted you. I bet you even thought I liked you. You thought I really liked you? How could I? You're a horrible monster sent straight from hell."

Cami's face burned, and she knew she had to stop him. Something was definitely wrong. "Impedimentia!" Cami shot the spell at Sam, but he dove out of the way, and rolled to Cami's backside. But before she could turn to aim at him again. Sam had her from behind. He'd pulled a knife, and had tucked it dangerously close to her carotid artery. Sam grabbed Cami's wand hand roughly with his free hand and twisted her wrist until the wand fell to the floor. Cami gritted her teeth, not wanting to let Sam hear her cry out in pain.

By this time, Dean and Mara were both upright again. Dean had a gun pointed at Sam, while Mara had her wand aimed at him as well.

"Sammy, you gotta snap outta this!" Dean ordered his brother.

"Snap out of it?" Sam laughed. "Weren't you the one who said we couldn't trust these witches. We could just get rid of them right now."

"What about Harry Potter?" Dean asked. He felt like a complete lunatic threatening his brother with a storybook character, but weird times, called for even weirder measures.

"Ha! We've killed worse," Sam dug the knife in Cami's neck even harder. She felt the heat of it breaking skin.

"Sorry 'bout this Sammy." Dean took aim and fired. A bullet lodged itself in Sam's left bicep. Sam yelled out and dropped the knife. As soon as his grip loosened, Cami ducked out and ran over to Mara. Dean walked over to where his brother was kneeling down on the floor, holding onto his wounded arm. Dean grabbed Cami's wand and threw it to her.

"You got a spell that can subdue him?" Dean asked.

"Yeah," Mara aimed at the injured brother. "Petricficus Totalus. Silencio."

Sam went stiff, and though he tried to cry out, he couldn't.

"Now let's get him patched up and onto the bed, so we can figure out what the hell just happened." Dean got up and let Cami levitate Sam onto the nearest bed. Mara, used a summoning to retrieve the bullet from Sam's arm and then Vulnera Sanentur spell to seal up the wound.

"How long will he be like that?" Dean asked.

"Awhile," Cami answered as she sealed up the tiny cut that the knife had made in her neck.

"Can I just say...What the bloody hell was that!?" Mara shrieked.

"I have no idea," Cami collapsed into a chair shaking a little from the scare. "He was fine on the car ride home. I'm just glad he decided to go all mad while you two were around."

"Could it be this symbol?" Mara asked, holding up the piece of paper, shoving it in front of Dean.

"Maybe." He looked at the drawing. "We need to figure it out quick."

"Got it." Mara sat down in front of the laptop. "First we need to find out what language this is."

She did some searching; and after about ten minutes, she was successful.

"Devanagari." Mara slapped her hand on the table. "Of course. I knew that it looked familiar. So we just need a translator."

"That's easy. Here, switch me spots," Dean shooed Mara out of her seat. He typed in a website that would translate any language to English. "It spells out Mohini. And Mohini..." Dean typed the name into a search engine and clicked on a link, "is the only female avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu. She is known to be an enchantress who maddens lovers, often times leading them to their doom."

"Lovers?" Cami looked puzzled. "But Sam and I aren't..."

"Yeah. Well, this is just an internet description. You can't take everything too literally." Dean continued looking through websites, reading as much as he could about the Hindu avatar. "Everything I read says that her beauty is her greatest weapon. It was how she enchanted her victims."

"That's wonderful," Mara uttered impatiently, "But does it say anything about how to kill her?"

"No." Dean frowned. "Hindu avatars are the incarnation of Hindu gods. And there's no record of how to kill a god." Technically Dean knew one thing that could kill a God, but Lucifer was staying locked up in his cage no matter the circumstances.

"So what now?" Cami asked.

"We improvise," Dean said, shutting the laptop and looking down at the random scribbles of notes he'd taken while doing research on Mohini.

Mara threw her hands up. "But any plan we come up with will just be a guess."

"Sammy and I've killed a lot of monsters on guesses."

Cami felt a bit helpless, and she was not accustomed to nor comfortable with the feeling. "Fine then. We know that Mohini is a human-type incarnation of the god Vishnu. We're pretty sure that she made Sam go all mad and attack me.."

Mara took over,"...and we know that her power to enchant comes from her beauty."

The three sat there for a few minutes, mulling over the information. Cami spoke up first, "If her power comes from her beauty, then that's where we need to strike."

"That makes sense," Mara agreed, "But who is Mohini?"

"Janice?" Cami suggested. "Sam did start acting weird after we met her."

"Was she beautiful?" Dean asked.

Cami shrugged. "Not particularly."

"Maybe the wife. Denise." Mara said.

"Maybe..." Dean thought aloud, "But she wasn't exceptionally hot either."

Dean's assessment surprised Mara. Denise was blonde and tan and had perfect skin, and she was thin. She was bloody Barbie doll. She figured any man would drool over a woman like that.

"So perhaps we've not met her yet," Cami suggested.

"Where was Denise when you and Sam went to the sister's house?" Mara questioned her partner.

"Sewing club," Cami answered.

"Sewing club?" Dean asked doubtfully.

"What about it?" Cami asked, not understanding Dean's disbelief. Mara waited to hear the answer too.

"I don't know about where you ladies come from, but here in the US of A, women in their early twenties, especially pretty women, don't go to sewing club for fun. They go to aerobics class or yoga or even book club. But sewing club? Nobody sews anymore. Do you remember the address for the sister?"

"It's written on a piece of paper in the glovebox of the car," Cami said.

"Good." Dean stood up and grabbed his jacket off the back of the chair. "Cami, will you be alright to stay here with Sam?"

Cami glanced over at the still incapacated Winchester. "Yeah. I'll be fine. If he breaks free, I'll just blast him with another spell."

"Just don't do any permanent damage. We're gonna get the real Sam back. Let's go Mara."

Mara seemed a bit taken aback that Dean had just invited her, willingly, to go hunt down a god. _Granted his manners still needed a lot of work_. "Alright." She grabbed her jacket and slid it over her shoulders, buttoning up the front.

"We'll be back soon," Mara assured her partner as they headed out the front door.

The door slammed close behind them, and Cami sat down on the empty bed across from Sam. It was hard to see him in such a helpless position. He always looked so strong and sure of himself. Even with his shaggy hair and his plain, grungy clothes, she could tell that Sam was smart. He carried himself with such maturity, yet there was a part of him that seemed so badly damaged that he was unable to hold his head as proudly as he should.

Sam noticed her looking at him and he turned his eyes in her direction, glaring at her. The look made her stomach churn. She wished she could go into the other room. Instead, she flipped on the television to act as a distraction.

***inside the Impala***

"How is it only noon?" Mara asked. "Aren't scary, life-threatening missions supposed to take place at night when it's all dark and eery."

Dean laughed out loud. "I needed that. Thanks."

Mara gave a strained smile. "It just seems a little weird that's all. So far all the scary stuff we've faced has been at night, in the dark."

"Well, a lot of the time that's when the creepy-crawlies come out to play."

"Makes sense I guess." Mara's stomach twisted itself in knots as she thought about what could possibly lie ahead. "Do you have any sort of plan?" Mara asked.

"Find the god. Kill the god."

Mara sighed. "Blimey. We're going to die."

"Not on my watch sweetheart."

Dean parked on the side of the road a couple houses down from the Janice's house. Dean and Mara watched in silence. Finally, after about thirty-five minutes, the garage door opened and a silver SUV backed out of the driveway.

Dean waited until the car was far enough away before starting the Impala and following behind. They trailed the SUV until it reached the local community center.

"The Community Center?" Mara said incredulously. "Are we sure we're going after the right person here? Maybe you were wrong about sewing club."

"Only one way to find out."

Mara held out an invisibility ring that she had brought for Dean and then slipped on her own ring. The two disappeared from each others sight. They crept up to the community center. Mara tried to keep track of Dean by watching where the grass on the ground flattened. A couple of times Mara bumped into Dean, but neither of them vocally acknowledged it, just in case some unknown bystander heard.

As they neared the center, they slowed so that Dean could assess the scene. Just as they reached the front door, a group of young women came filing out the front. They chatted amongst themselves, all smiling and talking animatedly.

Dean and Mara backed up against the front wall, hoping that nobody would get close enough to bump into them. The last two women to exit the building were Denise and Janice.

"I can't keep making excuses for you Janice. She has a very short temper. Why were you so late anyway? I mean, it's not as though the ritual takes very long."

Janice responded, "I understand that. But my husband has been increasingly suspicious lately. He doesn't understand why we have to meet so often. I believe he suspects me of cheating. We may need to deal with him soon."

Denise nodded. "But you took care of the FBI agents?"

"Yes. I wouldn't doubt that he is burying the body of his partner right now."

"Good. Now ladies!" Denise called out to all the women in the group. "Please remember to bring your supplies tomorrow night."

The women all nodded, and then went on their way. Mara and Dean waited until the last car was long gone, then hurried back to the Impala. Once they were inside, they both slipped off the invisibility rings. Dean handed his back to Mara.

"Definitely not sewing club," Dean said.

Mara nodded. "And she did do something to Sam."

"Whatever it was, we gotta snap him out of it. I think we'll definitely need him on this one."

"Let's get back to the motel. We'll think of something," Mara assured Dean. "Besides, you've been through worse right?"

"True," Dean agreed and started the engine.

***Earlier back at the motel***

Cami stared at the television screen, not even noticing or caring what television show she'd clicked on. Her mind was reeling through the evening's events. W_hen could Sam have been cursed or spelled or...Enchanted...that's what Dean had said Sam was enchanted. Supposedly by the beauty of Mohini. But the only two women they'd come into contact with were Sara and Janice. Neither was very beautiful. But maybe it wasn't obvious to just anybody. It had to be more than that. Or maybe one of the women had somehow harnessed the power of Mohini's beauty. Either way, Sam was enchanted sort of like a love spell, but in reverse...right? Dean said it made men turn on their lovers. Was it literal? Maybe Sam does have feelings for me_.

Cami's mind continued racing, and After an hour or so she'd come up with two possible solutions to break Sam of this mad enchantment.

She began trying to alter the memory spell to fit one of her plans, but before she could get very far, Sam's body-bind curse began to wear off. Cami quickly made sure he was unarmed, so that he couldn't lethally attack her just yet.

"What the hell are you still doing here Bitch!" Sam cursed at Cami as the silencing spell broke too.

Cami took a deep breath, but didn't say anything. She was too afraid that if she provoked him that she might get the chance to try out this plan of hers. Cami aimed her wand at Sam's right arm. "Incarcerous." A rope flung out the end of her wand and knotted itself around Sam's wrist and then around the bed frame. Cami did the same to his other arm and his legs.

Sam yelled, "You manipulative little...when I get outta here, I'm gonna strangle you, you wench."

Cami stood at the edge of the bed. Her heart was pounding as she gathered up every ounce of courage she had. If this worked, she might never be able to face Sam again. Cami leaned over, and the closer she got the faster and harder Sam fought against his ropes. He whipped his head back and forth wildly.

Cami huffed, and decided to try a different approach. _Oh my gosh. I will never ever live this down if he remembers this_. She climbed up on the bed and sat on his chest. The move caught him off guard. He paused his movements for a fraction of a second, just long enough for Cami to grab the sides of his face and shove her lips down on his. He thrashed, but Cami kept his head gripped firmly in her hands.

After another couple of seconds, Sam stopped moving. Cami kept her lips plastered to his. Another few seconds went by, and Cami felt Sam relax into the kiss, and suddenly he was kissing her back. His lips moved and hers followed.

_It could be a trick_. But, honestly, she didn't want to find out just yet.

Instead, she continued to kiss him. Their lips moved faster, and she felt his tongue slip into her mouth. The kisses grew deeper.

And then, without warning, the door to the room swung open. Cami shot up so quickly that she tumbled off the side of the bed and onto the floor.

"What the hell?!" Dean exclaimed, slamming the door behind him.

"Cami! What are you doing?" Mara yelled. She walked over to her partner and helped her up.

"I had an idea-" Cami started.

Dean looked stunned. "Damn girl. This is some idea." He smirked as he examined Sam in his extremely vulnerable state. "I like your style. And apparently so does my little brother. Feeling better Sammy?"

Sam stammered. "Uh yeah. A little confused, but I'm fine."

"Fine? Don't insult the lady," Dean teased, "That looked a lot better than just fine."

"Dean!" Sam barked. "Just get me outta these!"

"Are you sure? I mean...if Cami wasn't finished with you, we could go into the other room."

"Disgusting!" Mara whacked Dean up the side of the head.

"Damn woman. No need to get violent." Dean cringed, and he leaned over to untie his brother. Once Sam's arms were freed he untied his own legs.

"So how did you break him of the curse?" Mara asked Cami.

"It was something Dean said about it being an enchantment. You don't hear about a lot of enchantments in our world because they aren't accomplished by regular magic, only by certain magical creatures...rare magical creatures. But you said something about the men attacking lovers, and I thought maybe you have to break the enchantment by making them feel something for someone other than Mohini."

"He felt something alright." Mara chided. As soon as the words left her mouth, Mara gasped. "Oh bloody hell. He's rubbing off on me."

Dean laughed out loud.

Cami rolled her eyes. "Look however I got to the idea, he's back to normal and we can get back to work." Cami avoided looking over at Sam. She had really been hoping that if the kiss (or kisses in this case) worked, that Sam wouldn't remember. _And, to make things about a million times worse, Dean and Mara have to walk in and make assumptions_.

Sam sat up on the side of the bed.

"So do you remember what happened?" Mara asked him.

"Some of it's a little fuzzy. But yeah most of it."

Dean grabbed a chair while Mara and Cami both sat on the bed opposite Sam.

"Did you two find out anything?" Sam asked.

"We know that Janice is the one who made you go all mad" Mara answered, "And it doesn't sound like any of these women are Mohini."

After Mara and Dean had filled the other two in on the details of their short-lived stakeout, the boys headed out to get food for everyone.

"What in the world Cami?!" Mara exclaimed the moment they were back in their own room. "You could have gotten yourself killed! What if that whole kissing idea hadn't worked, and really...what made you think it would work? It was a long long long shot."

"Please just don't," Cami begged, throwing off the business jacket she was still wearing, "I'm humiliated enough as it is. Maybe once the embarrassment wears off, I'll let you go all mother hen on me." Cami's cheeks were bright red, and she kept her eyes glued to the floor.

Mara was still frustrated, but she decided to drop it. It was obvious that her partner was upset.

"You want the bathroom first or should I?" Mara asked.

"You go ahead. I'll take a few minutes to update my notes for our report."

***Back in the Impala***

"So should I ask or are you just gonna tell me what happened back there?" Dean asked his brother as he wound the car through town to find a fast-food joint.

Sam shook his head. "I'm not really sure. When we went to see Denise's sister, it's like she switched something in my brain. One minute, she was just a normal twenty-some-year-old housewife and the next she looks like a piece of heaven on earth. And then I slowly built up this undeniable urge to kill Cami."

"While that's all real interesting, I was referring to the kinky make-out session we walked in on." Dean raised a judgemental eyebrow in his brothers direction. They pulled into the drive-thru of a tex-mex place.

"That..." Sam rubbed the back of his neck apprehensively, "I don't really know what that was. But hey. It worked."

"Yeah I'll bet it did."

"For the record...it was her idea. I had no say in the matter."

Just then an employee came over the speaker asking what the boys wanted to order. Dean held back whatever smart-ass remark he'd had in store so that they could order. And Sam turned up the music as soon as they got their food. He wasn't about to go telling anyone, especially Dean, that Cami kissing him was one of the best feelings he'd had in years.

**I hope you enjoyed the chapter...maybe even laughed once or twice. Please review. I definitely love hearing what you all think. :D**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey ya'll. I just loved the comments this week. I'm practically floating every time I get a comment from a reader telling me how much they like my story. MizoreShirayukiFan, highlander348, musicalgryffindor, and Atala444, you all helped inspire me to write this chapter as fast as I could, and Chapter 6 is already in the works.**

Chapter 5: The Make Up

The next day was spent taking shifts watching the Larson house. However, the only comings and goings at the house were that of Mr. Larson, Janice's husband. To Cami's great relief, Mara agreed to take shifts with her and let the boys take a shift alone. Mara was wary about leaving the men alone, but she figured that the Winchesters definitely wouldn't take off in the middle of a job so they weren't a likely flight risk at the moment.

The team had come up with a plan based on the assumptions and information that Dean and the women had come up with the night before. Dean put up a bit of a fuss when everyone else agreed to wearing the invisibility rings. He claimed that he'd never needed magic before to kill a demon and he didn't need it now. He'd lost that battle in the end thanks to a few well-placed threats from Mara.

At six o'clock, the witches joined the Winchesters in their steak-out.

"I have to ask," Cami broke the silence in the car as they sat watching the quiet neighborhood, "How have you boys been doing this for so long and managed to stay alive?"

"We haven't," Dean answered.

"I'm sorry?"

"We have died," Dean clarified, "It just hasn't stuck."

"You've both died?" Mara said doubtfully

"Sammy twice and me three times."

"Incredible," Cami said.

Before they could continue explaining, the garage door at the Larson's opened and two vehicles pulled out, the silver SUV from the night before, and a red sports car driven by Denise.

"Show time," Dean said as he started up the car. He followed the two cars to a much different location than last night. Denise and Janice pulled their cars up next to a vacant, broken-down house on the edge of town. The property was almost completely surrounded by trees and bushes, blocking entry or view except by a single gravel road.

Dean pulled the car off the road in the trees just outside the property and killed the engine. Each of them got out and put on the invisibility rings. One by one, they disappeared.

"Alright, now just remember...don't look directly at Mohini if you can help it. We can't be sure how her powers actually work," Mara warned the group.

They trekked their way up to the house and then stood patiently near the front of the building until more women began showing up. Fortunately, Denise had propped open the front door so that the women arriving could walk directly inside. This setup allowed the Winchesters and the two witches to slip inside unnoticed.

Inside, an alter had been erected using candles and talismens atop a clothed table. As each woman entered, she carried an item of some sort. Cami, Mara, Sam, and Dean each took a different corner of the room, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Twenty minutes after they arrived, a total of sixteen women filled the room, and Denise shut and locked the entrance.

Denise led a bit of chanting and what sounded like a prayer in a foreign language. Then Denise adressed all the women in English, "Now, to praise Mohini, please bring forth your offering."

Each woman brought forth a gift and set it at the alter. Many of them brought food; a few brought pieces of jewelry or fine metals; but when Denise's turn came around, she brought forth an urn.

"I give you my husband's ashes Mohini. It was because of you, oh divine one, that I could cleanse myself of his unrighteousness. And I have been made new. I serve only you Mohini." She deposited the urn on the alter, and pulled something from her pocket. "And as a token of my undying faith and devotion for you Mohini, I give you a lock of my Jessica Yate's hair, my best friend and my husband's former wife. I am your humble servant."

_And there's our DNA_. Dean thought as he watched Denise lay the hair next to the urn.

When they had finished with their offerings, the women got to their knees and bowed before the alter. Suddenly, a form appeared. The figure was a woman, with every feature as perfect as though Michelangelo had sculpted her himself. Her hair was ivory, and she was clothed in gold and bright colors. And a soft glow emitted from her bronze skin.

"Who dares intrude upon this sacred meeting place?" Mohini boomed, and she looked directly at Sam.

His eyes grew in shock, and Dean and the witches all stared in astonishment. "You do not belong here," she hollered at Sam. Then her eyes darted toward Dean, then Cami and finally Mara.

Mohini, waved a hand and the rings disappeared from their fingers, leaving the members of the group visible. It took the entire room a second to process what had just happened. And a second more before Mohini's women attacked.

The avatar's followers divided themselves equally, a quarter of the room each taking a witch or a winchester. This left the odds at four against one.

Cami and Mara each took out a couple of the women with body-bind curses before the rest of them made physical contact. One of the women, took a huge swing at Mara, striking her jaw. Cami's attackers, on the other hand, opted to use their feet. Two women sent a kick at each of her knees, knocking Cami to the floor.

Over on the opposite side of the room. Dean and Sam were going hand to hand with the women. The men made sure that they didn't initiate eye contact with any of them. The last thing anybody needed was one of the boys going all crazed killer on his own team. Dean pistol whipped a couple of the women, which knocked them out cold while Sam grabbed one of the women by the neck, using his other hand to block the other three. He gripped the woman's neck, cutting off her airway, until she lost consciousness.

Mara and Cami managed to take down all of their attackers fairly easily but not without personal injury. Before either of them could get over to help the Winchesters, Mohini stepped directly in their path. Cami swiftly averted her eyes, but Mara was too late. The breathtakingly beautiful avatar took hold of Mara's will and flipped a switch in her brain. Then Mohini stepped back behind her alter where she could watch the chaos ensue.

Dean and Sam only had two attackers left to take out. Cami knew that Mara was in trouble and that she might need the Winchester's help...now. She sent a couple of impedimenta curses at the two women fighting the Winchester's and the women were thrown hard against the back wall.

Dean and Sam hadn't seen what happened to Mara. Without any warning, Mara sent a a curse at Dean. He was blown back into the wall. Mara stepped forward to fire again; she didn't get a chance to hurl another spell though. As soon as Cami knew for sure that Mara was under Mohini's control she aimed her wand at her partner. "Expelliarmus!" she yelled, and Mara's wand went flying into the far corner.

"You want to challenge me?!" Mara shrieked at Cami, and Mara held out her hand in Sam's direction. "Accio!" Sam's gun flew out of his hand and into Mara's. Sam looked at his empty hands in confusion. *Hadn't Cami just disarmed her.*

"You've been practicing," Cami said as Mara aimed the gun in her direction.

"Nah," Mara bragged, "I'm just that good." She gave a mean smile and cocked the gun.

"Expelliar-"

"Protego!" Mara yelled, holding up her free hand. An invisible shield went up in front of her, blocking Cami's disarming spell.

"Damn you Mara! Snap out of it!" Cami cried out.

Behind Mara, Mohini watched the fighting with an elated expression, enjoying the fruits of her labor.

During all of this, Dean got back to his feet. He caught Sam's eye, and they exchanged a silent plan using only head movements.

Just as Mara went to pull the guns trigger, Dean and Sam tackled the two women.

Mara lost the gun, and she fought to get out from under Dean.

"Dean! She has the potion!" Cami yelled out.

Dean fought to keep her still, while somehow managing to slip his hand into her jacket pocket. He pulled out a small vial of some white liquid.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Cami flicked her wand out from her position on the floor. The levitation spell sent the potion flying into the mouth of Mohini. Within a few seconds, the once beautiful avatar, took the form of a wrinkled, ugly old lady.

As her beauty faded, Mohini screamed. The scream grew louder and louder and eventually all of her followers joined in, even the unconscious ones. After a few more seconds, the avatar went up in flames. Half a second later her followers burned too. Cami hid her eyes because watching sixteen people burn to death was not something she wanted or needed to face.

It didn't take long before the only thing left of Mohini and her followers were seventeen piles of ashes.

Dean had still been pinning Mara down the entire time, but she'd stopped fighting him.

"You good now?" he asked her, still gripping her wrists with one hand.

"Yeah I'm good, so long as you get your fat ass off me," Mara pushed him off.

"That's my girl." Dean wisecracked.

"Let's clean up this mess," Sam instructed and led everyone outside. He ran back to the car while the others waited and returned carrying a gas can and box of matches.

Sam poured the entire can out inside the house and then threw a match in through the front door. They watched the house go up in flames, but didn't stick around for the fire department to show up.

"Jessica's hair was inside that building," Cami said, "Does that mean she's gone too."

"Yup," Dean answered her as they reached the vehicle. "An avatar and a ghost. Two birds with one stone if ya ask me."

Nobody spoke on the entire drive back to Bobby's house. Cami was having a difficult time with having watched over a dozen muggle women burn to death. Mara felt incredibly ashamed at having let Mohini take control of her. And neither of the guys knew what to say to the witches.

It was ten o'clock when they pulled up to the house. Despite the late hour, the lights in the house were still glowing through the curtains over the windows. Everybody piled out of the car, and Bobby met them at the door.

"Y'all look like shit," Bobby said.

"Yeah. Thanks Bobby," Sam uttered sarcastically.

"Just sayin..." Bobby sat back down behind his desk. "You ladies can take the guest room upstairs. Second door on your left."

"Thanks," Mara nodded, and without another word, the two women trudged upstairs and collapsed on the big bed.

"Looks like they got more than they're money's worth," Bobby grunted.

"You could say that," Sam agreed as he took a seat on the couch by the window.

Dean stole into the kitchen to grab a couple of cold beers from the fridge. He handed one to Sam and took a swig of his own. "It wasn't exactly the easiest job we've ever worked."

"How'd they do?" Bobby asked, leaning back in his desk chair and taking a drink of whiskey from a glass.

"Actually, really well. In fact, we kinda needed their help on this one," Sam answered.

"We coulda handled it alone," Dean disagreed.

"Dean," Sam snapped, "Could you just get your head outta your ass, and deal with the fact that as hunters, the girls aren't so bad."

"They're witches," Dean tried to correct him, "And we've done just fine up until now without their help."

"Don't kid yourself Dean," Bobby scolded, "You've needed plenty of help over the years. Hunter, angels, reapers, even demons."

"Look," Dean argued, "it just complicates a job more when we have to worry about two more lives."

"Ah, quit yer bellyachin'" Bobby said. "So how'd you take out this Mohini chick anyway?"

Once the Winchesters had gone over the details of the hunt, all three men turned in for the night.

Everyone was up and dressed by noon. After a breakfast of cereal and coffee, they all gathered around Bobby's desk.

Bobby spoke to the group first. "Here's what I've managed to find out over the last two days. This meeting Cass was talkin' bout is happening at the Center Street Tower in Room 408, and It's scheduled for one o'clock."

"How did you find all of this out?" Cami asked.

"Called in a few favors, talked to the right people."

"So now we need to come up with a plan," Sam said.

"Do we know that Leviathans will even be present at this meeting?" Mara asked.

"Can't be sure of anythin'. But it sure makes sense they would be," Bobby pointed out, sipping on his half cup of coffee.

"'Kay then. You got the blueprints of the building?" Dean asked.

"Right here." Bobby pulled out a stack of enourmous drawings from underneat a bunch of notebooks and texts on his desk.

The group began discussing plans for entering the building, but within minutes Dean and Mara were already fighting.

"We need to enter the building visible, no more of those ridiculous rings," Dean shouted.

"You didn't have a problem with the rings when we were staking out the community center back in Palmer."

"I didn't have time to argue at the time. I've got all the time to argue with you now lady," Dean took a step forward, intruding upon Mara's personal space.

"Is your ego really that big that you'd risk our lives just to avoid using magic?" Mara sneered.

"Are you really that weak, that you can't do anything without using that dumb wand of yours?" Dean shot back.

Mara took a step forward, and slapped Dean across the cheek, leaving a huge red mark on the side of his face. Dean stared daggers down at her.

"Didn't need my wand for that did I?" She gave him a smug smile.

"Enough you two," Sam hollered, wedging his way between the two. "Just quit the crap!"

Cami calmly spoke to Mara, "You should probably go cool off."

Mara turned on one foot and marched out the door, slamming it behind her so hard that the glass window shook ominously in its frame.

"That girl's got one hell of a temper," Dean tried to lighten the mood. Instead, he got accusatory stares from Bobby, Sam, and Cami.

"I don't know what you twos problem is," Bobby shook his head, "But you better get your shit figured out because this is a job where you can't afford mistakes."

"Yeah," Dean muttered, "Let's just keep working."

The members of the group continued throwing around ideas for the best methods for entering the building and getting to their destination. After Mara had stormed out the door she walked down the long drive and out to the side of the road. She kept walking in the direction of town. The occasional car slowed to see if she was okay, but she just waved them along.

After about a half an hour, Cami looked out the window to see if she could spot her partner. "I better go get Mara," she said when she didn't see Mara outside.

Dean felt a little guilty for being the reason that Mara had stormed outside in the first place. "I'll find her," Dean offered, "You guys stay here and keep working."

Dean roamed the property. When he came up empty, he jumped in the Impala and started driving. In the time Mara had been gone, she'd only gotten about a mile or so down the road.

"Want a lift?" Dean asked.

Mara glanced over and then picked up the pace. "Not from you."

"Mara, get in the car," Dean demanded.

The sky had started to cloud up as Mara walked down the road, and to her chagrin, a few drops started to fall. Dean noticed the drops landing on the windshield too.

"Unless you want to get soaked, I'd suggest you get in the car."

More, heavier drops started to fall. Mara gave up and finally climbed into the passenger seat of the Impala. Dean waited for her to shut the door and then he continued driving away from Bobby's.

"Didn't you come to take me back to the house?" Mara asked, puzzled as to why Dean hadn't taken a U-turn after she got in the car.

"Technically."

"So then where are we going?"

"Just driving."

Mara rolled her eyes and turned her attention to the view outside. The rain was coming down hard, making the trees, fields, and houses all blurry.

"You could at least apologize," Dean interrupted the steady sound of rain hitting the roof of the car.

"Apoligize?!" Mara whipped her head around. "For what exactly?"

"For slapping me."

"I will not. You deserved it."

"And why is that exactly?" Dean asked her as calmy as he could.

"Because you were being an ignorant, condescending jerk."

Dean opened his mouth to talk, but Mara continued talking.

"Why is that anyway? What is your big problem with us? With us using magic? Or maybe you just have a problem with me?"

"Look-" Dean started to answer but Mara cut him off again.

"I'm just trying to help. Just doing my job. And you know what? I've actually really enjoyed this job. Sure, I've got a hell of head wound and a fat lip, and yeah, we've been put in some life-threatening situations; but I became an auror for the excitement."

"Mar-"

"So if you really hate working with me that much."

"Mara!" Dean yelled.

Mara immediately fell silent.

"I don't hate working with you," Dean said.

"Yeah sure," she muttered sarcastically.

Dean shot a disapproving look over at Mara, and she snapped her mouth shut.

"Look, I just didn't want to become friends or anything okay? That never ends well. Every friend we've ever worked with, ever hunted with, has died. And I will not watch anybody else I care about die because of the job."

Mara sat there in stunned silence. This was the first time she'd ever seen Dean reveal any sensitivity.

"I kept hoping that you would get so angry that you would just leave. Then Sammy and I could do the job alone, just like we always have." Dean frowned. He didn't like letting his feelings out; it just wasn't natural for him. He thought it made him seem weak and vulnerable, two things he definitely was not.

Mara waited a moment to make sure that Dean didn't have more to say before responding. "I'm sorry," she said.

"For what?" Dean grunted.

"Well not for slapping you. But I am sorry that you've been put into a situation that you aren't comfortable with." Mara paused to tuck her hair behind her ears. "And since you don't want to be friends, shall I continue to act like a stubborn bitch or what?"

Dean finally laughed. "I don't know. I think we might send my brother off the deep end if we keep up the fighting."

Mara chuckled too. Dean kept driving to no particular destination as Mara watched the rain slide down the front windshield.

"So we can't be friends?" Mara asked, perhaps with a bit too much disappointment. Despite their fighting, Mara actually kind of enjoyed working with Dean.

"We shouldn't," he stated.

"But?"

"I don't have a but. Do you have a but?"

"I might have a but," Mara blurted out. Dean smiled in amusement over the hysterical exchange.

Mara grinned sheepishly.

Dean's cell phone rang, and he answered it, "Yeah?"

"I found her. We'll be back soon." Dean looked over at Mara who was watching him carefully as he talked on the phone. "And we'll bring back food."

Dean hung up. And continued with the conversation. "You were saying..."

"It's nothing," Mara shrugged, "We can talk about my but another time."

Dean grinned, and Mara once again turned to look out the window. _The guy obviously doesn't like talking about feelings. I'd feel like a complete fool telling him that it's too late. I already care about him, already consider these men friends...sort of_.

For the next six days, things were much less tense around the Singer residence. Most of the time was spent going over every detail of the plan. Bobby and the Winchester boys taught Cami and Mara everything they knew about Dean and Mara even came to a compromise over using magic. The night before they were set to head out to Cami found a quirt spot outside to work on her job report.

After a short while she noticed Sam approaching. "Hey," he greeted, with a nervous smile.

"Hi," Cami said, avoiding eye contact and pretending to focus on her notebook.

Sam sat down on the ground next to Cami and rested his arms on his knees. "We haven't really talked since...you know..."

Cami stared at the ground, "You mean since I tied you up and snogged you"

Sam chuckled. "Yeah that."

"Guess I was hoping that we could just forget it and move on," Cami smiled sheepishly.

"I'm not sure Dean will ever let us forget it," Sam pointed out.

"Ugghh," Cami hid her hands in her face.

"You know, I'm not sure I really understand how you came to the conclusion that kissing me would break Mohini's enchantment."

"I'm not sure I really want to tell anybody how I came up with that plan." Cami sat back up and turned to look at Sam. He was still smiling. It was a smile that would make most girls go weak at the knees, and the dimples made it even that much sexier.

"If it's really that bad, I promise I won't tell Dean," Sam pleaded.

Cami shook her head. "It's humiliating."

"C'mon." Sam bumped her shoulder with his.

Cami sighed and rolled her eyes. "Fine. I thought that what Dean had read about Mohini might be true. It made sense based on the murders we'd been investigating. He said that Mohini maddens lovers." Cami's cheeks grew hot as she regailed how she'd formulated her plan. "And then you attacked me...not Mara or Dean. So I guess, I thought..."

"You thought that I liked you," Sam finished.

Cami nodded. "See? Ridiculous right?"

"No."

"No?" Cami looked up at his face again. This time she looked directly in his eyes. He did the same and then he leaned down and kissed her.

Cami felt his lips press up against hers, and all self-doubt was gone. Cami's lips melted into his. She moved one hand behind Sam's neck and pulled herself in closer. Just like before, the kisses became faster and more passionate.

The kiss stopped abruptly though when the two were startled by he sound of a car door slamming.

_The last thing we need is Dean or Mara showing up again_. Cami thought to herself. She peered up at Sam who was watching her with such peaceful eyes. Cami smiled sheepishly, and leaned back down to her position before Sam had come along, so she could continue working.

The two listened as Mara hollered at Dean inside the house. Something about spilling his beer on her notebook. Cami chuckled.

"What?" Sam asked.

"Did you notice...when Mara was under Mohini's spell, she attacked Dean first."

"Oh-ho," Sam shook his head, "Don't even go there."

***The next day***

They started out for Detroit at seven o'clock the night before the meeting. By the time they settled in at the motel, the meeting was only three hours away. Everyone changed into their uniforms. The plan was to pair up, each witch with a Winchester; so each team had the same set of skills, magic or otherwise.

Everyone started out dressed in business attire which would get them inside without arousing any suspicions. When they arrived downtown, Dean parked in a centrally located parking garage, and they all headed into the building together.

There were no problems getting past to security thanks to their fake badges and a quick confundus charm from Cami. Once inside the group split off.

Sam and Cami headed to the security office where two guards sat watching a wall full of screens.

"Silencio," Cami whispered before the guards had a chance to turn around and say anything. "Incarcerous." Ropes flew out and wound themselves around the guards, tying them to their chairs.

Cami quickly turned and locked the door. Sam pulled out a container of chloroform and dumped some on a rag. He took a turn at each guard, knocking each one unconscious. They couldn't risk letting the men stay conscious and watching what they were doing. Then he pushed the two men into a closet in the corner of the small room, pulling out two more chairs as he did so.

"You ready?" Sam grabbed his briefcase and clicked it open.

"Yeah," Cami said, she opened her briefcase and quickly slipped off her jacket and blouse (she'd made sure to wear an undershirt that day) and put on a collared shirt, tie, and security badge. Sam did the same.

Cami and Sam each took a seat. "Now where's the entrance to room 408."

***Outside the security office***

Mara and Dean stole into a couple of restrooms and quickly slipped on a set of janitorial uniforms. Once they were changed, Mara followed Dean up the elevator to the 4th floor. They walked to the south side of the building and found the utitlity room at the end of the hall.

Inside, Dean grabbed a ladder and set it up in the center of the room, just under the entrance to the ventilation system. He let Mara go first and then climbed up himself.

"Right or left?" Mara asked. Left. We'll go straight about fifty feet and the right thirty feet. That should get us to the vent just above room 408."

The pair inched their way slowly through the ductwork. They couldn't use a flashlight, on the off chance that someone below might see the light and discover them. "This is horrible. I can't see a thing!" Mara whispered.

"Yeah, well things look just fine from back here," Dean remarked.

"I'm sorry. Did you just comment on my ass?"

"It was a compliment."

"I suppose I should take them where I can get 'em in your case," Mara sighed. Dean let out a sigh of relief. He'd been a tad bit worried that Mara would lose her temper over comment and decide to kick him in the face.

After a couple more minutes, they reached the correct vent and positioned themselves so that they could see and hear what was happening within the small meeting room.

Twenty minutes went before a small group of three men in suits and ties entered the room. And less than a minute later, two more men joined them.

From above all of the men looked the same, except for their hair color. "Welcome gentlemen," the man with sandy blonde hair greeted the group, "I am William Reed." The man held out his hand for each of the men.

"Stanley Cooper," one of the men, with salt and pepper colored hair.

"Jim Brown," the other man introduced himself, this one with brown hair and these are my

William spoke again, "These are my partners Pete Song and Thomas Chang." Both Pete and Thomas had jet black hair, and by the color of their skin (and of course their names), Dean guessed that they were probably from Eastern Asia. "Our mission here today is to prove to you that by your handing over ownership of R.R.E., we can ...well to put it in simplest terms, we can make you a great deal of money."

"That will be a tough feat . Richard Roman Enterprises went bankrupt nearly overnight. It's CEO and many of its top employees disappeared without a trace. A company doesn't just bounce back from something like that. We've held off liquidating assets and paying back shareholders because you asked that we do so, requesting this meeting months in advanced. If you didn't have the reputation that you have, we would not have agreed to wait so long."

William gave a deep chuckle. "Yes, my reputation does prove useful at times." William walked out of view, but continued to speak. "Mr. Chang is handing you all plans to reinvent Richard Roman Enterprises. First and foremost, we will start by giving the company a complete makeover, including the name. Second, you'll see that the company would focus its efforts on a much narrower field. While he was a very ambitious and successful business man, Dick Roman tended to get a bit greedy. I mean by the end of it, it would seem as though he was trying to take over the world or something." William and the two bank representatives laughed at the bad, and extremely ironic, joke.

"We have a complete layout of what the company would look like. We would focus our sights on the formulation and distribution of cafeteria food for schools across the country, ensuring that children are getting the best quality, healthiest foods in their school lunches. Our goal will be to get all schools in the entire nation to be serving the same menu which will allow for low-cost lunches and will eliminate the need for outside vendors or lunches brought from home."

"We've included in here the results of over a hundred surveys conducted which determined that 98% of parents would never send their children to school with money or sack lunches if they knew that their children were getting fresh, healthy, cost friendly food in their school cafeteria. And 97% of those parents agreed that they could and would pay $2.00 per lunch. What's better? With our plan, no child would pay more than $1.50 for a lunch with a healthy entree, two or three sides, and a carton of milk or juice."

"You'll see that with our projections, the company would be completely out of debt and turning a profit within nine months. After which time-" Suddenly William was cut off by the sound of a phone ringing...his phone ringing. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the phone. After checking the screen, he answered.

"Yes Miss Price?"

"I see," William spoke to the caller on the other end of the phone, "Of course. I'll be right there."

William hung up the phone.

"Gentlemen," he addressed Mr. Cooper and Mr. Brown, "I do apologize greatly; however, I have just been informed that there is an emergency that I must tend to right away. But not to worry...we can finish our meeting tonight."

William pulled a couple of business cards from his left jacket pocket. "Why don't we meet at my club tonight at eight-thirty. We can talk business for awhile, and then you two men can feel free stay and enjoy yourselves."

The two bank reps looked at one another and nodded. "We'll be there," Mr. Brown said. And all of the men swiftly exited the room.

"We need to find out what club they're meeting at," Dean whispered and maneuvered his phone out of his pocket.

He hit Sam's number and pressed send. "Sammy, did you see the two men who just left the room, one with grayish hair and one with brown hair?"

"You need to intercept them. They each have a business card in their right outside jacket pocket. We need to get our hands on one of them."

***Back inside the security office***

"On it." Sam hung up the phone. "Let's go." He led Cami out the door and marched straight over toward the elevators. They stood there waiting as groups of men and women got on and off the elevator. Within minute or so, Sam spotted the two men he was looking for and made a beeline for them.

"Just follow my lead," Sam whispered to Cami.

"I'm sorry sir, but you're going to have to come with me," Sam grabbed Mr. Coopers left arm and led him toward the security office.

"What?! What for?!" Mr. Cooper bellowed.

Mr. Brown tried to follow them, but Sam held out his hand. "No sir, we can't allow you to come with during official security business."

"What in the world are you talking about?! Security business?! What's going on?!" Mr. Cooper ripped his arm from Sam's grip. Sam quickly grabbed onto him once again.

"Please stay calm sir," Cami stated calmly, "A city-wide alert just went out for a man matching your description. Of course, we believe that nothing is wrong here and it's nothing personal, but we are required to do a security check."

"This is just ridiculous," Mr. Cooper grumbled, "I've never heard of such a thing."

"We are one of the top security companies in the state," Cami explained, "Our job is to make sure that this building and its employees are completely safe at all times."

Once they reached the security office, Sam took the businessman's briefcase and handed it to Cami. Cami set the briefcase on the desk and opened it, examining its contents while Sam quickly patted Mr. Cooper down. As soon as Sam was finished, Cami slammed the briefcase shut and handed it back to the middle-aged man.

"Again sorry for the inconvenience," Cami apologized.

The man scowled and marched out of the office and back to his partner.

"What was that all about?" Cami asked, a little annoyed by the fact that she hadn't been let in on the plan beforehand.

"Sorry, there wasn't time to explain. Dean called and told me we needed this." Sam held up a business card.

Just then, an actual security guard showed up at the door. "I just got a complaint that one of our visitors from Northern Nation Bank was illegally searched." That's when the guard took notice of Cami and Sam. "Who are you? And where are Bob and Lyle?"

"They had to cut out early," Sam said, "But we just noticed something suspicious out front on the screen, so we're headed to check it out." Sam rushed out the door, and Cami hurried after him. They ran outside, picking up the pace once they hit the sidewalk.

By the time they'd reached the car, Mara and Dean were already depositing their uniforms in the trunk of the car.

"Did you get it?" Dean asked his brother as they all climbed into the vehicle.

Sam reached into his pocket and pulled out the small, rectangular card that he'd stolen off Mr. Cooper's person. Dean took the card and read it.

A huge grin spread across his face. "Sometimes these jobs really do rock."

"What?" Mara asked. "What is it?"

She leaned over the seats and peeked at the card.

"Club X"

"Oh no," Sam groaned, "Really?"

"What is it?" Cami urged, trying not to be irratated that nobody had yet said what the big deal was.

"It's a strip club," Sam answered.

Dean held the card up. "Correction. Exotic Dancer Showcase."

"A strip club," Sam repeated.

Dean glanced back at the two witches in the rearview mirror. "Looks like you ladies are going undercover."

**Woah! A strip club!? What kind of crazy mischief will ensue with the witches and the Winchesters?...we'll have to see. Readers, let me know what you thought and what your excited to see happen next. :D**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey everyone! This chapter was so much fun to write. A big thanks to Atala444, highlander348, kindleflame5, WinterRain36, and musicalgryffindor for your awesome reviews and great ideas. I know some of you were very excited for this next chapter; I hope I don't disappoint...**

Chapter 6: Show-witches

"Oh why did I agree to this?" Cami groaned, she studied herself in the mirror and grimaced. She was clad in a pair of black extra short, shorts, a hot pink bralette, and a pair of matching hot pink tennis shoes.

"At least you get to be a waitress," Mara opened the bathroom door and stepped out. "Look at me."

Cami turned to look and jokingly hid her eyes behind her spread fingers. "Oh that is way more Mara than I ever needed to see."

Mara grabbed a robe. She slipped it over her shoulders and tied up the front. "This is more of Mara than anybody ever needs to see, and I'm about to go out in public wearing it."

"Where'd you get the idea for the...uh...outfit?" Cami asked, tugging down on her shorts in an attempt to cover her exposed cheeks.

"I borrowed the boys' laptop and did some quick research to get some ideas and..." Mara cringed "...to learn to lap dance."

"Oh heavens."

"Remind me to kill those two men when this is all over," Mara said as she sat down and slipped on a pair of tight, knee-high black boots.

"Only after I get a shot at them," Cami tugged on her shirt, but attempting to cover up some of her belly only resulted in exposing more cleavage.

One of the men pounded on the door to the girls' room. "You two sexy ladies ready to go?" Dean hollered from the other side of the door.

"Almost," Mara sang as she grabbed a coat to throw on, "We just have to finish planning your horrific deaths."

The men laughed.

"If we just knew for sure that the lock wasn't bewitched we could've avoided this whole stupid plan," Mara muttered.

"Yeah well no use crying about it now." Cami slid into her coat, and the witches opened the door into the Winchester's room.

"What's this?" Dean looked at the women disapprovingly, "I think Sam and I should have final say in your outfit choice. We are the experts after all."

"I will slap you again," Mara threatened Dean. Dean smirked at her.

Sam looked down at his watch. "'Kay, we've got an hour until the meeting at Club X. Let's go."

***Somewhere in middle of Detroit***

Dean dropped the girls off at the back of the club, so they could slip in through the employee door. Mara got out and walked around to the drivers' side where Dean had rolled down the window.

"Here." She reluctantly handed him her wand. Inside the club there would be no safe place to keep it, and she had no place on her person she'd be able to conceal it while she was "working".

"Don't worry. I'll take good care of it." Dean assured her.

"You better. Or I'll transfigure your ass." Mara flashed a smile.

Dean frowned. He now knew that this witch was completely serious with her threats.

Cami unlocked the back door to the club then she handed Sam her wand. Because like Mara, she would have no place to keep hers either. The two young witches slid in the backdoor while the men drove around front to park.

The back of the club was so busy that nobody noticed when Cami and Mara arrived. In fact, as soon as Cami and Mara had hung up their coats on a hook near the backdoor, one of the club's other waitresses grabbed by the arm.

"Oh thank God!" the tall, curvy redhead exclaimed, "Jenny just called-in sick, and she has an important VIP party coming in, and I have to cover for her. Can you take my tables..." the woman read Cami's tiny, rhinestone name tag, "Lily?"

"Sure," Cami said nervously,"It's only my second night though. What tables am I covering?" Sam had promised that he would make sure that Cami would have a job when she got here. Obviously he didn't disappoint. She just hoped he didn't actually have to get this girl Jenny sick to do so.

"I'll show you." The redhead pulled Cami out to the bar area.

Mara watched her partner head out to the front. She stood around unsure of where to go until a small throng of dancers walked back to a dressing room behind the club's stage.

The dressing room was a bustling mess of women, scanty clothing thrown about, mirrors, and vanities piled high with makeup, perfume and hair products. Mara watched as at least a dozen girls crowded their way around the vanities to apply eyeliner and lipstick or spray their curls with hairspray. One girl stood behind a changing curtain, getting dressed for her shift.

After a few minutes, a middle-aged man looking disgruntled and needing a shave walked into the room. "Alright ladies, Mr. Reed has some special guests coming in tonight and he wants me to decide which of you will have the great pleasure of serving dancing for them," The man announced to the room. "So who wants it?"

All of the girls started jumping up and down, squealing and begging him to pick them.

Mara stepped out, directly in front of the man. "I want the job, so tell me what I have to do to get it."

"And who are you young lady?" The man consulted his clipboard. Mara put her hand down, covering his pages full of lists. "I'm Glinda." Mara smiled. "I'm new here, and I'm getting that job."

The man sighed. "Fine. In that case, I'll need to see what you've got. You're up next."

Mara stomach did a double backflip, and she felt what little bit she had for lunch try to make its way back up. She also felt the fiery stares of all the other dancers eating into the back of her head as she walked out of the dressing room and to the back of the stage.

_A try out?!_ Mara cried out in her head. She began to feel a little woozy. _Bullocks. What am I gonna do?_

Mara walked over to the DJ. "What's your song?" he asked.

Mara answered with the first song that came to mind. "_Out Tonight _fromRent."

The man nodded. "Haven't heard that one in while," he said, pulling a record from one of the shelves. Then Mara was hit with an idea...and if it worked that disgusting little man would have no choice but to give her the VIP job.

"You got a microphone you can fit me with?" Mara asked the DJ.

"A microphone?" he asked looking confused.

"Yeah," she waved her hands to try to get him to move faster, "And turn down to the lyrics on the track."

The man stared at her for second, looking perplexed. Then he quickly stumbled around to find a tiny microphone that Mara could attach to her fumbled with the mike, fitting it to the shape of her face. She climbed the stairs to the curtains at the back of the stage and waited for the music to start. Her heart was pounding and everything around her seemed too bright, too loud.

"Mara you've got this," she coached herself out loud. "You've seen this movie about a thousand times. You know every word. Every move."

The DJs voice boomed from the speakers on the stage. "Ladies and Gentlemen. We have a special treat for you tonight. A musical number performed by the Very Bad Witch of the Detroit...GLINDA!"

And then Mara heard the familiar notes of the begin to play out on stage. She stepped out from behind the curtain and started dancing. Her moves started out stiff and unnatural. When it was time, Mara started singing.

_What's the time?  
Well it's gotta be close to midnight..._

She threw off the robe she was wearing. The entire room went up in cheers and Mara couldn't help but smile. The hooting and hollering from all the men, was like fuel to her confidence level. Mara belted out the lyrics louder. She kicked and swung herself on the stair rails. Mara spun around the poles and crawled across the floor of the stage, ad-libbing where she couldn't remember the choreography.

As her number brought her to the front of the stage, she caught sight of Dean and Sam and Cami. Sam sat there looking amused; Cami looked horrified, but Dean's expression was not what she expected. He had a look of pure fascination spread all over his face. She winked at him, laughing inside to think of what could possibly be going through his head.

When she hit the final note of the song, the crowd once again erupted in applause. Mara smiled, and swayed off stage, grabbing her robe as she disappeared behind the backstage curtain.

The middle-aged man came hurrying up to her, breathing heavily. "You've got the gig." He choked out between gasping breaths, "Mr. Reed saw the entire performance and has demanded that you be their personal dancer tonight in the VIP room."

"Great!" Mara exclaimed as she finished tying up her robe.

"Now go get freshened up. Mr. Reed said to have you ready at nine."

"Nine. Got it." Mara walked back to the changing room. As soon as she walked in, the entire room went silent.

"What's the matter?" Mara asked looking around at all the awe-struck faces.

One of the girls, a platinum-blonde woman with heavy makeup and a ridiculous spray tan answered her, "Will has never personally requested a specific dancer before."

"Oh," Mara looked shocked, "Is that bad?"

"Hell no girl," a tall, lanky African American woman with a head full of curls cried out, "Will is loaded. You'll probably make more tonight than you would in an entire year."

"Oh. Well. Terrific!" Mara stammered. She walked over to a box of tissues and began dabbing the sweat off her face and neck. The adrenaline had already started wearing off, and the butterflies once again started flittering around in the pit of her stomach. _I am going to kill those boys for making me do this_. But as Mara stood there, staring at herself in the mirror, she remembered the look on Dean's face, and for a moment, that made her smile...really smile.

***Out on the club floor***

It didn't take long for Cami to acclimate herself to the waitressing gig at the patrons of Club X weren't very original with their drink orders, and to make things a bit more enjoyable, they tipped her very well. When Sam and Dean walked in, Cami walked over and led them to a table in her section. The table was right near the center of the room, where they would have a good view of everything.

"What can I get you boys this evening?" Cami acted her part.

"Two beers." Sam said. He lowered his voice as Cami scribbled their order on a pad of paper. "Everything go alright back there?"

"For me yes," Cami said, "But I haven't seen Mara since we got inside."

Dean barely paid any attention to what they were saying. He was too preoccupied by the black-haired beauty dancing on stage to "Buttons" by The Pussycat Dolls. "I love this job," Dean remarked and handed popped a handful of the complimentary peanuts into his mouth.

"That's naff." Cami said in disgust before walking back to the bar to get the boys their drinks. She grabbed the beers and walked them back over to Sam and Dean.

The DJ announced Mara (aka. Glinda) as Cami was setting the beers in front of the men.

"Oooh. Glinda," Dean waggled his eyebrows and smirked at his brother. Sam rolled his eyes. As the song started up Sam, Dean, and Cami all watched their friend appear on stage.

"Bloody hell! That's -" before she could say Mara's name. Sam slapped his hand over Cami's mouth. They couldn't let a surprise, as big as it may be, mess up the plan.

"Holy crap," Dean uttered the words as he watched Mara throw off her robe, revealing a an outfit that most definitely suited her character. Her top was a black corset with pink accents and pink rope. The corset stopped short at the bottom of her rib cage so that you could see all of her stomach, and her bottoms were a matching pair of cheeksters. Then, of course, she still had on the high-heeled black boots.

As the entire room broke out in cheers, Cami looked around. She spotted William Reed standing near the back of the room with his two sidekicks. His eyes were glued to the stage, and he had a disturbing grin on his face.

Cami nudged Sam. "Reed is back there looking quite pleased with Glinda's performance."

Sam peeked over his shoulder in the direction Cami had indicated. "Good," Sam said, "Then there's a good chance that she'll be able to get herself in that VIP room to get us the key."

Cami looked over at Dean who sat there, completely silent, mesmerized by Cami's partner on stage.

_I knew it_. She thought to herself. It was becoming more obvious by the day that Dean and Mara were undeniably attracted to one another, despite their serious case of denial.

Dean watched Mara under the bright lights. With any other dancer, he'd be hooting and hollering with all the other guys in the room, but with Mara it was different. He had no dirty thoughts, nothing vulgar going through his mind. Up until this moment, Dean had been able to deny that he thought she was pretty or that he was attracted to her. Now, he was left speechless by her beauty, her charisma.

Mid-performance, she looked straight at him and winked. _Hot Damn! What was that!_ Dean thought in astonishment.

"Dean!" Sam snapped his brother out of the trance Mara had put him in. "You might want to wipe the drool off your face." Sam chuckled.

Dean frowned and rolled his eyes. "Shutup Sammy."

Cami left the boys to watch the rest of Mara's performance and continued serving other customers.

Sam kept an eye on the back of the room and watched Reed greet the two bank representatives at the door. He led them into the small circular room, closed off with walls made of blue fluorescent lights.

"Reed just took the bank reps into the VIP room," Sam whispered loudly.

Dean and Sam watched as a waitress headed into the room, carrying a small tray of drinks.

At a quarter til nine. Cami slid backstage to find Mara.

"I just heard from one of the waitresses that you're dancing for Reed and his guys," Cami said.

Mara nodded, shivering a little as she thought about it. "I'm supposed to head in any minute."

Under different circumstances both girls would have broken down in fits of laughter...and maybe they would later. But with the severity of the situation looming overhead, neither woman even cracked a were both silently hoping nothing would go wrong.

The clipboard guy walked up to Mara. "You're on sweetheart."

Mara looked over at Cami. "See ya in a bit."

Cami nodded and watched her partner, her friend walk out into the club.

Mara had now faced ghosts, Mohini, not to mention a multitude of dark wizards and creatures at the academy; but she'd never been more nervous in her life than at this very moment. It was one thing to be dancing on a stage where nobody could touch her and everyone was cheering her on, it was a completely different thing to be dancing for five men, some of whom were possibly Leviathans, where they could touch her. They could put their disgusting hands all over her, and they would be able to see everything Mara's outfit didn't hide up-close.

Mara made her way through the club's crowd, turning heads as she strode by. She caught Dean's eyes for a split second, not even long enough to determine what his expression was. She couldn't risk him seeing the fear she was feeling. Before she reached the VIP booth, Mara took a second to compose herself. She plastered on a smile and pulled the curtain aside that blocked the entrance to the room.

"Ahhh...here's my beautiful Glinda!" Reed exclaimed as Mara walked into the room.

Mara placed her hands on her hips, and eyed each of the men. "Good evening boys. Who wants to start?"

"Why don't you give us all a little show to begin with." Reed suggested, gesturing to the lit table in the middle of the room. Stuck smack dab in the center of the table was a metal pole that stretched all the way up to the ceiling.

"Your wish is my command." Mara stepped up onto the table and moved to the music, wrapping her legs around the pole and swinging. Bending in ways that would allow the men to see her "features" even better. Mara had spent the last hour watching other girls on the floor studying their moves, so she could utilize them when this time came. She crawled on the table, coming close to the men but never touching them. And she swung her head...a lot, letting her long, wavy curls entice and entrance.

The men watched her with glee on their faces, like children watching candy being made. Except for Reed, his face was filled with hunger, but whether it was actual hunger or sexual hunger was not clear.

The men occasionally commented on Glinda's moves or on her body. Things like "That's got to be the finest ass this side of the Detroit River." or "Oooh, I wish my wife could bend like that." After a few songs, Reed asked his two guests if they'd like a private dance.

"You've been very generous tonight Mr. Reed," Mr. Brown stood, "And this has been quite enjoyable, but we should probably be going. The wives will start to wonder what's keeping us so late."

Reed laughed. "Of course. Of course."

"We'll be in touch soon," Mr. Cooper stated.

"Absolutely," Reed said enthusiastically, "You gentlemen have a wonderful night."

"And you also," Mr. Brown bid the handsome club owner goodbye, and the two bank men exited the room, leaving only Reed, Mr. Song, and Mr. Chang.

"Boys," Reed spoke to the two men on his right, "Why don't you leave me and Glinda here."

"Of course sir," Mr. Song nodded, and he and Mr. Chang also took their leave.

As soon as they were gone, Reed turned to Glinda, "Alright honey. Show me what you got."

Mara climbed on top of Reed, holding herself mere centimeters off of his body, supporting her weight with her legs. She copied moves she'd seen earlier on a few online videos, as well as some she'd seen other girls doing. At one point, she climbed behind Reed, sitting on the back of the large circular leaned over and slowly moved her hands down his chest as she breathed in his ear. The small electronic key she needed proved quite easy to grab and slide out of his inside jacket pocket. She had Dean to thank for his hour-long tutorial on pick-pocketing. Once she had hold of it, she slid the tiny oval key, inside her bra; and continued dancing.

Thirty minutes after Mr. Brown and Mr. Cooper left, Mara still hadn't emerged from the VIP room. Since Mr. Song and Mr. Chang were now standing outside the entrance to the room, Dean and Sam knew that she was in their alone with Reed.

"You think she has it yet?" Dean asked Sam anxiously.

"I don't know," Sam frowned.

Dean couldn't help the twinge of jealously seeping its way into his blood. "I'm givin it fifteen minutes before we find a way to get her outta there," Dean said, taking another drink of his beer.

Finally, after fifteen more minutes passed and their was no sign of Mara, Sam gestured to Cami. She walked over to their table, and leaned in so she could hear over the crowd that was now extremely intoxicated and incredibly loud.

"We're going to create a distraction," Dean told her, "Something that will draw Reed out of the room. While he's distracted, you need to get in there and see if Mara got that key."

"Right." Cami nodded. And she hurried over to stand near the entrance to the round, blue room.

"Ready?" Dean asked his brother.

"This job sucks," Sam gave as an answer.

Dean yelled. "You asshole!" And he swung at his brother. Sam ducked and shoved Dean into a nearby table where he bowled over a group of drunk, young college boys. The group of young men were less than pleased with the interruption of their night out, and one of them shoved Sam.

Sam let himself fly into another nearby table where he knocked a bunch of drinks into the laps of some middle-aged men in business suits.

"That's a $700 suit you bastard!" One of the men bellowed at Sam. He punched Sam in the face, and Sam attacked. The fight continued to escalate as more drunk men joined in until half the room was involved.

When Mr. Chang noticed the fight getting out of hand, he slipped into the VIP room where Reed was enjoying Mara's tenth straight dance.

"Boss, we have a problem out there. You may want to have a look."

Mara stopped dancing so that Reed could speak to his employee. Reed's face became angry.

"This better be good Tom. I don't like being interrupted."

"It is sir."

Reed followed Chang out of the room. As soon as he was gone, Cami slipped inside the room to find a very defeated looking Mara.

"You okay?"

"I'm not sure okay is the word. But I did get the key." Mara pulled it from her bra and handed it to Cami. Cami quickly slipped it in her own bra and turned to leave. She noticed that Mara hadn't moved.

"Aren't you coming?"

"And alert Reed that there's something going on?" Mara shook her head. "As much as I desperately, desperately want to get out of here, I'll wait until Reed is done with me." Mara practically choked on the words. She felt sick at the prospect of having to continue acting like a prostitute to some disgusting pervert who's idea of a good time was having strange women rub there almost-naked bodies all over him.

"Now get outta her," Mara whispered urgently. "He'll probably be back any moment."

Cami hesitated. It went against her better judgement to leave her partner in a potentially dangerous situation, but Mara was right. The plan hinged upon them all keeping up their acts.

Cami turned and hurried back out into the club. In just the few minutes she'd been inside the VIP room, security had managed to break up the fight and calm down almost all of the club's patrons.

Cami searched the room for the Winchester boys, but the table they'd been sitting at before was now empty. She started walking toward the bar and when she got there, somebody grabbed her wrist. Instinctively, she turned to hit the person. It was Sam, and she stopped her arm before she could make contact with the side of his face.

"Sorry," Sam apologized for scaring her.

"I was afraid they'd thrown you out," Cami said.

"Dean and I slipped out during the fight. Nobody noticed." Sam moved his eyes in the direction of the stage. Their at the very edge in the far corner stood Dean. "Did you get it?" Sam asked.

"Yes, I got it."

"Then we gotta go."

"But what about Mara?"

"Dean's gonna stay here with her," Sam assured the young witch, "We need to get that into Reed's office now before he realizes his key's gone missing."

Cami glanced anxiously over at the VIP room where Reed still had Mara within his grasp...probably literally.

"Fine," Cami relented, "Follow me." She led Sam into the back and out the employee entrance. The alley behind the club was completely deserted. Cami seized the moment and squeezed Sam's hand even tighter.

The two of them apparated, landing in the corner of the hallway on the top floor of Center Street Tower. Cami had studied the cameras the day before, and she recalled that none of the corners in the hallways were visible in the security cameras.

Cami aimed her wand at each of the cameras and vanished them. Once all of the cameras were down, Sam and Cami made their way down to the very end of the hall where William Reed's office was located. When they'd reached the door, Cami pulled the key out of her bra.

"Nice," Sam teased.

"Shhhh," Cami grinned, and she waved the key in front of the locking mechanism for the door. "You're sure there aren't any cameras in there?"

"I'm sure," Dean said, "I checked every screen in that security office. No cameras."

"Good. Then let's get this done." Cami pushed open the door tall, heavy door.

***At Club X***

"You are the most gorgeous, most deliciously scrumptious looking specimen I've ever had the pleasure of having dance for me."

Mara flashed a huge smile and batted her eyelashes. "Why, you flatter me greatly Will."

"And that accent..." Reed continued as he squeezed her butt on both sides. "Where are you from Glinda?"

Mara gritted her teeth as he touched her bare cheeks. "London."

"Yes, of course." Reed ran his finger tips along her arms. The song ended which gave Mara a split-second to catch her breath.

"You know Glinda. I think I'd like to bring you back to my office," William leaned in and shocked Mara with a kiss on the neck. Mara gasped and tried to think of an excuse.

"Oh Will, that's a very enticing offer, but I'm afraid I have a very jealous boyfriend," Mara stuttered.

"He'll never need to know. And I'll pay you more than you've ever dreamed of..." Reed whispered in her ear.

Mara stepped off the bench. "Mr. Reed, I apologize if I'm crossing a line here, but I'm not a prostitute." She tried to head for the exit, but Reed grabbed Mara's wrist and jerked her back so that she landed flat up against him.

He looked scary now, his face now warped into a sinister smile. "When you work for me, you're whatever I say you are. Now unless you want to leave my establishment in a body bag, I suggest you come with me, and don't draw any attention to yourself." Reed pulled out a tiny 9mm and held it to Mara's back. He pulled her close so that nobody would notice the gun, and the two walked out of the VIP room.

Mara immediately looked towards the center of the room, but the table where Dean and Sam had been was now occupied by a group of four cowboys. She felt her skin get cold, feeling helpless and alone. Reed hurried her to the back left corner of the building and down a small hallway. Mr. Chang and Mr. Song followed from behind. Mara had now come to the conclusion that these two large men were Reed's bodyguards.

Reed pushed Mara inside a room, and the two Asian men stood guard outside the door. Reed locked the door to the room with his free hand not moving the gun from Mara's back. Mara examined the place Reed had brought her. At one end of the room was an enormous wooden desk, setup nice and neat with a few pens, a rock garden, and a laptop placed squarely in the center. At the other end of the room was a bed and a small stage where one or two dancers would be able to give Reed his private show.

Mara searched the room for any type of weapon or something to grab Reed's attention. She spotted a couple of large paintings on the wall and a bronze figure sitting on wooden pedestal in the corners of the room. Mara hoped Reed would lower his gun soon. She couldn't risk attacking him only to have him fire a bullet straight into her spine.

Reed led Mara over to the bed and turned her around so that she was facing him. The witch no longer pretended to be enjoying herself. Reed shoved himself against her, digging the gun into her stomach. Mara shut her eyes tight and fought the urge to scream as he slid his fingers under her bra strap and started to kiss her neck again.

Dean had been watching as Reed took Mara into the room at the back of the club. He was smart enough to know when someone had a gun on them, so he understood why Mara hadn't been fighting back. He couldn't risk approaching them out in the open while Reed had a gun on the girl. However, once they'd disappeared behind the door, Dean knew he had to make a move.

He casually made his way over to the hallway and walked up to the two large bodyguards.

"Excuse me gentlemen. Is this the way to the bathroom?" Dean grabbed the door handle. Mr. Chang ripped Dean's hand away.

"That's not the bathroom," Mr. Chang grunted, "Now get outta here."

"'Fraid I can't do that," Dean said as he pulled a water pistol from his pocket. He shot streams of Borax at the two guards. Both men went down screaming. Fortunately, the club was too loud for anyone to hear the two men.

While the guards were temporarily incapacitated, Dean kicked the office door hard and it flung open. The loud bang of the door breaking interrupted Reed's attempt to unclothe Mara. The moment Reed was distracted and his gun was aimed away from her, Mara raised her hand at one of the metal figures in the corner of the room.

_Accio statue_! She thought loudly. The metal figure went flying into her hand and she swung as hard as she could, knocking Reed to the ground. Then she ran. Dean shot what was left of the Borax at Reed and ran after Mara.

"Get to the car!" Dean yelled at Mara as they combed their way through the crowd. The two burst out the front door. Dean overtook Mara and led her to the car. They clamored inside not bothering with seat-belts or door locks. Dean shoved the keys in the ignition, hit the gas, and they peeled out of the parking lot. Mara looked back. Five men, including Mr. Chang and Mr. Song came running outside and jumped into two cars that sped out after the Impala.

"They're following us," Mara cried out.

"Yeah I know," Dean said in an irritated tone.

Mara kept her eyes behind them as Dean lowered the gas pedal closer to the floor. He weaved in and out of traffic, and took a couple of corners but couldn't shake the two cars chasing them.

"Where's my wand?" Mara yelled at Dean.

"Here." Dean dug into his jacket pocket. He grabbed the wand, and just as he pulled it out the car right behind them, rammed them from behind. Dean lost his grip on the wand and it fell to the floor and rolled underneath the break pedal. "Crap! Just great!" Dean muttered.

"Accio wand," Mara said. The wand moved, but it had become lodged underneath the break pedal. Mara tried again. "Accio wand." That just made it worse, lodging the wand even tighter.

"Oh bloody hell!" Mara hit the dash. She looked over at Dean who was focused on the road and the rearview mirrors.

"Please don't take this the wrong way," Mara said to Dean as she dove between his legs.

"What the hell?!" Dean yelled.

"I need my wand," Mara yelled back as she dislodged the wand from behind the break pedal and climbed back up and into the passenger seat. Dean glanced in the rearview mirror and picked up speed.

"You know even under these circumstances that was totally hot." Dean glanced over at Mara and then moved his eyes to the rearview mirror. He saw three of the men leaned out their open windows and point guns at the car. "Get down!" Dean hollered.

Mara folded herself down below window level. Dean lowered himself too, but kept his head high enough that he could still see the road.

"Don't you have some sort of shielding spell!" Dean cried out over the noise of gunfire.

"Yes but if I cast it theirs a chance that the bullets will bounce off and start hitting other people and cars around us!"

While she was crouched down, Mara opened her window. She waited until their was a break in the gunfire and then sent some well-placed spells out towards the vehicle behind them. One of the spells blew up the first car's front right tire and the car immediately veered right, crashing into the side of a brick building. The collision held up the second vehicle, giving Mara and Dean enough time to speed around a few corners and lose their pursuers.

Mara collapsed back in her seat. "Thank goodness!"

"Nice shooting," Dean said as he continued to weave his way out toward the edge of town.

"Thanks," Mara sighed. "Now give me your jacket."

Dean looked at Mara like she was crazy, "We were just in a high-speed car chase being shot at by half a dozen freaks and you want my jacket?"

"Yes. I'm practically naked over here," Mara said as she grabbed her seatbelt.

Dean grinned. "I noticed."

Mara went to go strike Dean; but the second she raised her arm, a hot sting blasted her shoulder. Mara glanced over where the pain originated. There was a deep scrape on her shoulder. "Looks like one of their bullets grazed me." Mara said, and she held her wand over the scrape and closed the wound.

"No other bullet wounds?" Dean examined her, watching the road from the corner of his eye..

Mara crossed her arms to hide her exposed chest. "No. Now get your eyes back on the road."

"Yes ma'am," Dean smirked and turned back toward the highway.

"And I'll take that jacket now." Mara held out her hand and waited.

**Whew! That was quite a bit of excitement in one chapter. :) Let me know what you thought**.


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello Reader's. I know this chapter took a bit longer than usual to post. For some reason, this was a difficult chapter to write thanks to a bit of writer's block and a two-day migraine. But I hope you all enjoy**.

Chapter 7: Something's Gotta Give...or Not

As the excitement of the evening started to wear off, Mara could no longer count on adrenaline to block out her emotions. She started shaking and quietly sucking in shallow breaths. That moment in Reed's bedroom replayed itself over in her mind. It hadn't gotten very far, but Mara never felt so violated. She wanted to cry and scream and yell and hit something all at once. Instead, she opted for glaring out the window.

"Hey," Dean looked over at her, "You okay?"

Mara nodded, not trusting her voice. If she opened her mouth, she wasn't sure what would come out.

"Don't worry. We're gonna gank that son-of-a-bitch the next chance we get."

Mara nodded again, still staring outside the window.

***Downtown at Reed's office***

Sam's phone vibrated in his pocket. He flipped it open and found a text message from Dean.

**_Ran into some trouble. Not sure how long before Reed notices key is gone. C U back motel._**

"Dammit!" Sam had spent the past twenty minutes trying to crack Reed's computer password.

"What's wrong?" Cami asked. She was standing at the door, keeping watch.

"Dean says they ran into trouble."

"Oh no!" Cami cried out, "Are they-"

"They're fine. He says they're back at the motel."

Cami sighed. "Thank goodness."

Sam tried another password, and the computer's home screen popped up. "Got it!" He pulled a flash drive from his pocket and shoved it in one of the computers usb port. "Now let's see what we can find."

Sam started opening files; trying to find anything that might be useful. Cami continued to watch the hallway, occasionally sending glances over in Sam's direction. After another hour, one of the elevators down the hall dinged open and Reed, Chang, and Song stepped out.

Cami quickly retreated into the room. "Reed's here!" she whispered urgently, rushing over to where Sam was seated at the desk.

"I've barely gotten through any of this." Sam started throwing random files onto the flash drive. They heard the men's footsteps getting closer, and Cami set the key to the office on the desk, hoping that Reed would just think that he accidentally left it behind.

Sam hurried to logged out of the computer and grabbed the flash drive, shoving it back into his coat. At this point, the men were right outside the door. Cami heard the door lock click open just as she reached out for Sam and apparated right into the Winchester's motel room.

***Earlier in the motel room***

Mara walked over to the mirror and deposited Dean's jacket beside the sink. She stared at herself, covered in sweat and dried blood from the bullet scrape. Reed had snapped off one of her corset's straps too. Mara supported herself against the sink, sobbing tearlessly for a minute, and then coaxing herself into the shower.

Mara let the hot water run over her, washing and rinsing about ten times before the water went cold. The shower helped, and by the time Mara had changed into a pair of leggings and a sweatshirt, she had calmed down. She decided to simply hold onto what Dean had said...that, one way or another, they would kill that disgusting fork-tongued freak.

Mara pulled her hair back into a ponytail and knocked on Dean's door.

"Door's open," Dean called out. Dean was seated on one of the beds, with a warm beer in one hand and the t.v. remote in the other. Mara walked over and lay down on the opposite bed.

Dean glanced over at her. He watched her roll over and look at the t.v. The Mara lying on the bed looked so fragile compared to the Mara who'd impersonated a stripper, danced on stage in front of a crowd, braved taking on a solo gig with three Leviathans, and saved their butts in a car chase, getting shot in the process. She looked so small and young. _Too young. Maybe twenty_?

"May I ask why you are staring at me?" Mara said, not taking her eyes off the old western movie playing on television.

Dean quickly turned his attention back to the t.v. "I wasn't- Sorry."

"Thanks for saving me by the way. Back at the club."

"No problem."

An hour later, Sam and Cami apparated in front of the television.

Dean started. Mara, on the other hand, had fallen asleep and even the commotion of their entrance didn't wake her.

"Geesh!" Dean whispered. "Way to scare the piss out of a guy."

Cami heaved a sigh while Sam sat down on the bed to regain his balance. "You get what we needed?" Dean hounded his brother, still keeping his voice at a whisper.

"Not sure," Sam answered disappointedly, "Reed and his guys showed up and I had to hurry things along. I'll have to go through the files and see what I can find."

Dean frowned. "We better get the hell outta dodge then. They may be lookin' for us, and who knows how many cops Reed's got under his belt."

Sam nodded. "How soon can you be ready to go?" he asked Cami.

"Give me two minutes to change."

Sam spent the whole drive back to Bobby's going through the files he'd retrieved from Reed's computer. When they arrived back at the house, Bobby took over searching through the files while Sam, Dean, and the witches crashed.

They all slept until late that evening. And once they'd all cleaned up and gathered in the main room, Bobby disclosed what he'd found in Reed's files.

"Just a name. That's all I could find. Bruce Banner."

"Wait." Sam gave an amused smile. "Like The Hulk?"

"Yeah," Bobby looked as confused as the two Winchesters, "Smack dab in the middle of a bunch of official documents was the name Bruce Banner. Thought maybe it was some sort of a joke. But these were serious documents."

"It's gotta be an alias," Dean said.

Bobby made a face, "Well duh. That or someone's parents had it out for their kid."

"Alias or not, we need to start looking for Bruce Banner," Sam stated.

"Already on it. So is Castiel." Bobby walked around behind his desk. He opened one of the drawers and pulled out a cell phone. "But I'm beat. See you kids later." And Bobby hauled himself upstairs to his room.

"So what now?" Cami asked the Winchester's.

"Now," Dean said walking into the kitchen and grabbing a beer from the refridgerator, "We let Cass and Bobby do what they do, and we take the night off."

"Take the night off?" Mara asked in disbelief. "But we're on an assignment."

Dean cracked open his bottle and took a drink. "Hey sweetheart. I love the job. I really do. But sometimes you just gotta relax, go out, grab a drink."

"I don't drink," Mara said matter-of-factly.

Dean choked on his beer. He coughed. "How-? You don't-? Alright, " Dean set his beer down on the table. "That settles it. Let's go." He grabbed onto Mara's arm.

"Go? Where are we going?" Mara asked.

"We're going to get you a drink," Dean answered pulling on her arm.

"No thanks, I'll pass." Mara stood her ground.

"You need to learn to relax and have some fun."

Mara tore her arm away from Dean. "I know how to have fun."

"And tell me...what is your idea of fun?"

"Well-" Mara thought for a moment. She enjoyed playing cards with Cami sometimes and listening to music. And of course, playing quidditch with her brothers.

Dean made a buzzing sound. "Times up." He reached for Mara's arm again. "Let's go."

Mara stepped back, not letting Dean grab hold of her. "No way. I am not going to some disgusting pub where you'll have me drink stuff that tastes like dirty socks."

"Alright then," Dean shrugged and walked over to the laptop sitting at the kitchen table. "In that case, we could spend the rest of the evening watching videos posted online of you performing at Club X."

Mara fumed. "You're such an ass."

"It'll only get worse. Unless..."

"Fine," Mara walked over and closed the laptop, "I'll go. If you promise to find a way to get all videos of me off the internet. I'm sure you can manage that."

Dean smiled. "Deal."

Sam and Cami stood there watching their partners. They both found the way Dean and Mara interacted incredibly amusing. Cami felt it was a lot like watching someone placing two magnets together with the the same polar ends facing each other. Anytime, they were in close proximity, they'd push each other away. But you could tell that if they were put in the right situation they would collide.

"Sam? Cami? You two gonna get in on the fun?" Dean asked sliding his arms through the sleeves of his army green jacket.

"As much fun as that sounds, I'd much rather spend my evening NOT watching my brother get a girl drunk."

"And I think I'll take a night of peace and quiet to catch up on some reading," Cami said casually.

"I am not getting drunk," Mara assured Sam. She looked at Dean and repeated herself. "I am not getting drunk. Got it?"

"Got it." Dean said, and the two of them headed out the door.

"That could be disastrous," Cami watched as the Impala made its way down the driveway.

"Uh-yeah. Oh well, we can deal with the consequences tomorrow. So...what do we really want to do with our night off?"

Cami looked puzzled. "I just told you. I'm gonna catch up on some reading."

Sam stuttered, "Oh. Yeah. Sorry, I just assumed..."

Cami chuckled as Sam stood there looking slightly clueless.

"I was kidding. Pass up time alone with you? I don't think so. What should we do?"

Sam shrugged. "Usually my nights off are spent making sure Dean doesn't get into trouble, or I'm obsessing over a job. I guess sometimes I watch t.v."

"Well then. Let's start with something simple. A movie?"

"A movie sounds good. Lemme see if Bobby has a car we can borrow."

Sam was able to find a working old Chevy pickup covered in rust and with a broken muffler. They drove to a small dollar theater near one of the colleges in town that was playing _House of the Dead_.

"We have to be completely mental to be going to see a scary movie on our night off," Cami said.

Sam smiled. "It's probably a really horrible scary movie. It is a dollar theater."

"So a bad, scary movie...you sure know how to woo a girl Mr. Winchester," Cami teased.

Sam bought the tickets and paid for some popcorn and sodas.. The theater was dark and dirty with sticky floors and stale popcorn in the seats. Cami noted how strangely normal this felt. For the moment, it was easy to forget about all the monsters and ghosts and evil that they were hunting for.

Sam and Cami took a couple of spots at the very back of the theater. Even for a dollar theater, the crowd was pretty sparse; there were only about a dozen other people spread out in the seats. Cami cast a muffliato spell and leaned closer to Sam. "I should probably warn you. I talk during movies. And I talk A LOT during bad movies; I like to poke fun at them."

The smile that had been plastered to Sam's face since the moment Cami agreed to spend the evening with him widened even further. "Even better, a bad movie with commentary."

"Really?"

"Really."

_He is the greatest guy ever. _Cami thought. She gave Sam a peck on the cheek. Just then, the movie started and Sam slinked his arm around Cami's shoulders. From the first scene, Cami's jokes began. Most movie-goers would have found her completely obnoxious, but the movie was so terrible and Cami was so funny that by the time the end credits rolled on-screen, Sam was practically in tears form laughing so hard.

"Remind me to only take you to bad movies from now on," Sam said, getting up from his seat.

Cami smirked. "So you had a good time?"

"I don't think good time quite covers it. I haven't laughed that hard in..." Sam thought to himself. "...years."

"Years?" Cami frowned. There was so much she didn't know about this man. _What kind of person doesn't laugh for years at a time_?

Sam didn't respond. He wasn't going to ruin the night by diving into his sordid past just yet.

Cami and Sam followed the small crowd of people out to the sidewalk. The chilly autumn night smelled clean and crisp. After an hour and a half of popcorn and old building smell, Cami breathed in a deep gulp of air.

"So I told you what I do on my nights off," Sam said they piled back into the old pickup, "What do you normally do for fun?"

Cami shrugged, "I read and watch movies. Sometimes, I'll get together with a few friends and go out to dinner. Boring stuff compared to what you and Dean are used to I'm sure."

"I'd take boring in a heartbeat," Sam admitted, "But, from what I've seen so far, you are definitely not boring."

Cami blushed.

"What about you and Mara? It's a little hard to read your relationship. Do you two hang out outside of work?"

Cami nodded. "Yeah. We're friends. But she spends a lot of her free time working on new spells or training. Honestly, I don't think I've ever really seen her relax or let her guard down. Well, except for the other night when she was on stage."

Sam laughed, "That was pretty...

"Weird."

"I was gonna go with shocking, but weird works."

"It's a bit ironic too...I've always been like this, the way I am now. But not Mara. Up until sixth year, she was kind of a bad girl."

"No," Sam uttered in disbelief.

Cami nodded. "She used to get into trouble all the time at school. And from what I heard, over summer vacation, she'd sneak off to go partying or play tricks on muggles."

"So what happened?"

Cami shrugged, shaking her head. "Not sure. She came back to school after the summer between our fifth and sixth year, and it was like she'd been replaced by a whole new version of herself. She made knew friends and never again stuck even a toe out of line. She started studying all the time and devoted herself to becoming an Auror. She's been that way ever since."

Sam pulled out onto the highway and started driving back to Bobby's.

"May I ask you something?" Cami asked.

"Go ahead," Sam looked over at her.

"Dean said that you had died before...more than once."

Sam waited. Cami looked at him curiously.

"How is that possible?"

"That's a long story."

"We've got all night." Cami grinned.

Sam eyed her skeptically. "And you want to spend all night talking about how I've died."

Cami eyes widened in surprise. "Um,"

Sam laughed at her loss of speech. He pulled the car into the driveway of an old, broken down empty house and undid his seatbelt.

"Please don't tell me there's a ghost in there we have to kill," Cami muttered jokingly.

"If there is, it'll just have to wait." He leaned over and kissed Cami's neck. She instantly turned and kissed Sam on the lips. Cami fumbled with her seatbelt until Sam finally took over and slid it off with one hand. Then Sam practically lifted Cami so that she was straddling him on the large bench seat. Cami laced her fingers through Sam's hair as he continued to place kisses on her neck, and then back on her lips. Their tongues danced over one another. After a few minutes, Cami artfully slipped off her jacket. Then she helped Sam out of his. Cami slipped her hands underneath Sam's shirt and ran her fingers down the solid abs he maintained all the while keeping her lips securely fastened to his.

_He's so amazing_! Cami thought._ This night is perfect_.

And as though the universe was playing some cruel joke, at that very moment, Sam's phone rang. They both ignored it at first, but whoever it was continued to call. The two broke apart, and Sam answered.

"Yeah?" He sounded annoyed.

"'Kay Bobby. We'll be right there."

Cami sighed and slid off of Sam. Sam stopped her and kissed her once more, making sure it was long and sweet..

***Earlier, at Hal's Bar***

Mara frowned at the tiny glass full of light tan liquid. "To a night off." Dean held up his shot glass. Mara just sat that there continuing to eye the glass of tequila Dean had ordered her.

"C'mon," Dean coaxed her, "It's not that bad." Mara sucked in a breath. She slowly raised her glass, feeling slightly sick at the thought of what the tequila would taste like.

Dean threw back his shot and a second later Mara threw back hers too. She cringed and made a face. "Bloody hell! That's awful." Mara choked out.

Dean laughed.

But the affects of the alcohol could be felt after only a short time.

"I can't believe you've never had a drink."

Mara held up a finger. "I said I don't drink. Not that I'd never had a drink."

"You used to drink?"

"When I was about fourteen or fifteen." Mara wouldn't have normally disclosed this information to Dean, but for the moment she was feeling like she could say anything and it wouldn't matter.

"You're joking right?"

Mara shook her head. "It would be like you drinking when you were seventeen or eighteen here. Plus in England, you're allowed to drink in private if you're over age five."

"Sweet!"

Dean motioned for the bartender to refill their shot glasses. The middle-aged, blonde behind the bar poured them each another shot of the 80-proof tequila.

"Ready?" Dean grabbed his shot glass. Mara picked up hers too, this time without any hesitation. The effects of the drink were well worth the disgusting taste. They both threw back their shots at the same time. Mara slammed her hand down on the bar's counter as the tequila set her throat on fire.

After two shots in a row, Mara's mind had really started to fall victim to a lack of reserve. She would probably do or say anything that was asked of her, as long as it sounded interesting. Mara looked around the room vaguely and noticed that nobody was using the pool table. She stood up and momentarily lost her balance. Dean caught and steadied her.

"Where ya goin' there firebolt?" Dean chided.

Mara pulled on his forearm. "You're gonna teach me how to play pool."

Dean looked at the small, eager brunette tugging on his jacket. In her face, he saw what he'd been hoping for...the exhilaration that she'd shown last night when she was up on stage. _Sure it's alcohol-induced, but beggars can't be choosers right?_

"C'mon." Mara tugged harder and he walked with her over to the table. Once he'd explained the rules of the game, Mara took the first turn.

Three games later, Mara had yet to come close to beating Dean. "You lose again," Dean told Mara as he began retrieving balls from the pool table pockets.

"What?!" Mara looked confused. "I lose? But I was solids right?"

"Yeah," Dean starting racking up the balls for another game. "But the eight ball is the exception. You have to wait until the very end to shoot the eight ball into a pocket. If you get it in a pocket before the rest of your balls are gone, you lose."

"Bullocks! I wasn't even aiming for it."

"It would help if you didn't hold the stick like a samurai sword."

Mara shrugged his suggestion off.

"So this is what you do for fun? Lower your inhibitions and hit balls with sticks?"

Dean took a shot and exploded the triangle of balls, sending two solids into two corner pockets.

"Well..." Dean gave a smug smile, "...this is one of the things."

"Oh! Ew!" Mara exclaimed. Even in her liquored up state-of-mind, she still caught the reference to sex Dean had implied.

"What?! I am a guy."

Mara shook her head, and tried to aim at a striped ball in the corner. She hit a solid one instead sending it flying into a side pocket.

"Damn!"

"Here." Dean walked over to where Mara was standing. "At least let me show you how to hold this thing."

He leaned in next to her and folded her fingers around the end of the pool stick. Then, Dean stood behind Mara and positioned her so that she could aim, keeping his face next to hers. That way he could see what she was seeing on the pool table.

As Dean invaded Mara's personal space, she was once again struck by his unique scent. "You know you smell of soap and leather?"

Dean smiled. "Sounds like a compliment to me."

A voice in the back of Mara's head, untouched by the alcohol, was telling her that she needed to tell this man to leave her alone; she could figure out how to shoot the balls without his help. Then, there was another part that just couldn't get enough of the man next to her, having him so close that she could feel his warm breath on the side of her face.

"Alright, so you want to use your finger as a guide," Dean instructed her, "And from there it's just shooting at the right angle and speed. Easy as pie."

Mara nodded and let Dean help guide her with the shot, though she was barely paying attention to the game at all now. The alcohol in her system had her thoughts all skewed, and right now all she could focus on was Dean's hands touching her.

The ball they'd hit went sailing into one of the side pockets. "Just like that," Dean said.

Mara turned her head to say something, at which point she realized how close Dean's face was to hers. She instantly forgot whatever she was about to tell him. Mara froze with her eyes locked on his, and Dean stood there staring back, suddenly aware of how his body was completely surrounding Mara.

And just like Cami had imagined earlier, it was like someone had turned one of their polar ends around. They were now pulling toward one another. And then...

Dean's phone rang.

Mara ducked out from between Dean's arms. and he flipped open his phone.

"Bobby. What's up?"

"Got it. We're on our way."

Mara had already put away the pool sticks and starting racking up balls again while Dean had been on the phone.

"Time to go?" She reached for a couple of balls in the pool table's pockets.

"Yup," Dean nodded. He walked up to the bar and paid the bartender for the evening's drinks. And Mara followed him out to the car, slipping her jacket on as they went.

Whatever sort of moment Mara and Dean had just fallen prey to had sobered the two of them up better than a whole put of coffee.

To their great relief,. They certainly didn't want to have to put up with any of the third degree from

"What's with the late night phone call Bobby?" Dean asked as he entered the house and walked up to stand next to his brother. Cami and Sam having arrived back at the house about ten minutes prior. "You find somethin' on Bruce Banner already?"

Bobby rubbed the side of his face; he'd obviously just gotten out of bed. "Not yet. No, I just got a phone call from June Young. Husband Jake's a hunter down in Georgia. He was workin' a job in Charleston, South Carolina. June says she hasn't heard from Jake in a couple o' days. You boys alright with headin' down to see what's goin' on?"

"Sure Bobby," Sam said.

Bobby handed Sam a stack of papers. "This is what June sent to me. Some stuff on the case Jake was working." Sam took the papers and examined the top sheet. It was a copy of an article about a disappearance in Charleston.

Dean looked at the rest of the room. "Guess we're goin' to South Carolina then. We'll head out in ten."

Cami and Mara headed up to the guest room to grab their things.

"So how was your book?" Mara asked her partner.

"Book?" It took a second for Cami to realize why Mara was asking about a book. "Oh..oh yeah. Good. Really good. What about you? How was drinking with Dean?"

Mara fought the blood that was attempting to rush to her cheeks. "Fine."

Neither of the girls spoke after that. Both of them, mentally obsessing over their evenings. Cami was on cloud nine remembering every kiss, every touch from Sam. While Mara was fighting with her feelings about the almost moment back at the bar. And by eleven o'clock, the foursome was on the long road to Charleston.

"Jake was looking into a string of disappearances associated with a cruise line called Cupid Cruises, a single's cruise line. In almost every case, the person just disappeared while the ship was out to sea, leaving their belongings behind. In this one case though, one witness stated that they saw a woman and a man jump off the side of the boat," Sam said aloud.

Cami continued for him, "It looks like Jake thought the reason for the disappearances may have been something called an Encantando."

"An Encantando?" Dean asked.

Sam shuffled through more papers. "Encantandos are creatures that come from a paradisiacal underwater realm called Encante. Most often, they were known to exist in the shape of dolphins who could shape-shift into human form. Their three most notable characteristics are their superior musical ability, their suductiveness and love of sex, and their attraction to parties. Transformation into human form is supposed to be rare and only take place at night. Encantandos are said to possibly have powers such as the ability to control storms, the ability to control humans and force them to do their bidding, the ability to turn humans into Encantandos, and the ability to inflict illness, madness, or even death. In folklore, Encantandos are said to be fond of abducting humans they fall in love with. Also, it says when they are in human form, they wear a hat as they're blowhole doesn't go away even in human form."

Dean snickered.

"What?" Sam asked.

"You said blowhole."

Sam and Mara both rolled their eyes.

"You suppose this other hunter, Jake, was abducted by the Encantando?" Mara asked.

"I guess that's what we're gonna find out," Sam answered her.

Twenty-six hours, three bad diners and six gas stations later, Dean pulled into a small motel on the edge of Charleston. Sam had gotten ahold of June Young to find out where Jake was staying. So first things first, they planned on checking to see if they could find any clues in Jake's motel room.

Cami unlocked the door and the group crowded into the tiny one-bed motel room. There were food containers and a laptop computer littering a small table in the corner. Spread all over the bed were piles of papers, many of which were identical to the ones Sam and Cami had already read over. Jake had hung a map of the coast of South Carolina to the wall with pins identifying all locations where the abductions had taken place.

Sam started going through Jake's computer while the rest of the group began sifting through the papers on the bed.

"Looks like maybe Jake found his witness," Dean said, holding up the article that said their had been a witness. In the margin, Jake had scribbled down a name and address.

Mara picked up a multiple-page list of cruise line schedules. A few of them had been highlighted. She started going through the list and comparing them to the map. "I think he also found a pattern in the abductions. It looks like we can determine when and on what ship they'll take place."

"Good," Dean said, "Looks like Jake's already done all the grunt work for us. Now where is he?"

"On a cruise," Sam answered. He turned the computer around so the screen was facing Dean and the girls. "He booked a ticket for a cruise that shipped out three days ago."

"On the Lady Love?" Mara asked, consulting the list on her paper.

"Yup."

"We need to get on that ship," Dean said.

Sam shook his head, "The ship is scheduled to dock back here today at eleven a.m."

"We can find out then if he was really on that ship," Cami said.

"And we should probably interview this witness to find out what he knows," Dean suggested.

Mara checked the clock on the bedside table. *12:23 a.m*. "That gives us time to get some rest before we go searching for Jake."

"I'll go get us a couple of rooms," Dean offered and headed out the door for the front office.

After some much needed sleep, the group got ready to go in search of the missing hunter. Dean and Mara both insisted that they could interview the witness acting as homeland security. Sam had his doubts, but Dean and Mara had been getting along better lately, so Sam agreed to it.

At eleven o'clock, Sam and Cami stood at the dock, watching every passenger as they got off. Jake Hunter was nowhere to be seen. As soon as the last passenger had exited the ship, Sam hurried up to the ship's entrance and approached one of the employees that was scanning tickets.

"Excuse me miss," he spoke to the woman in a navy blue skirt suit. "My friend was supposed to be on this ship, but he never got off."

"Sir, I'm sure you just missed him. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to step off the ship."

Cami spoke, making herself sound choked up "But he's my Uncle, and his son had to be rushed to the hospital this morning. It's very important that we find him right now. Is there anyone who can help us to make sure that he isn't still on the ship somewhere?"

The woman's stern face softened. "Just give me a moment. Let me see if I can find someone to help you." And she walked off.

"Crap! You are good at this."

"I am aren't I?" Cami smiled.

The woman returned a moment later with a large man in a suit and tie and carrying a tablet.

"Claire tells me that you think your Uncle might be on board still."

Cami switched on her sad face once more. "Yes sir. It's very important that we find him right away, but we didn't see him get off the ship. His name is Wayde McDonald." (The name that Jake had used on his cruise ticket.)

The cruise employee started typing on his tablet. After a minute, he got a confused look on his face. "I'm showing that a Wayde McDonald never got scanned off the ship, so he should still be on board. Please follow me. We can go check to see if he is still in his cabin."

Sam and Cami followed the man to the fourth deck, room 423. Inside, they found a few items that must have belonged to Jake: a change of clothes, a toothbrush, and a small notebook. The ship employee had all employees on the ship check everywhere for Jake but to no avail.

Cami turned on the fake waterworks when they told them that their Uncle was nowhere to be found. Sam told the ship employee that he would call the police right away and then led a bawling Cami off the ship. As soon as they were out of sight, Cami stopped the tears and wiped her face.

"You suppose maybe Jake got off the ship, and we just didn't see him?" Cami asked.

Sam shrugged. "Maybe. We'll know when we get back to the motel."

***Back in the Impala***

"So you understand how this works?" Dean asked.

"Yes, for heaven's sake. That's the fifth time you've asked me that. I've got it." Mara smoothed the black pencil skirt that hugged her legs as she sat in the passenger seat.

"Fine. We just can't screw this up."

"And you suppose I'd be the one to mess up?" Mara raised her eyebrow at him.

"You haven't ever done this before."

"Maybe not. But, unlike you, I am actually a law enforcement officer...at least in the wizarding community I am. I know how to conduct myself in an official manner."

Dean silently nodded and drove them to a residential part of the city. The address Jake had written down led them to a tiny house in a quiet neighborhood. Dean parked down the street, and he and Mara walked up to the the front door. After knocking a few times, a man who looked to be in his mid-twenties with dark, crew cut hair and a short, dark goatee answered.

"Good Morning we're looking for Mr. Lee Morris," Mara said.

"I am most definitely him," the man said. He ran his eyes up and down, checking out Mara.

Dean moved over, grabbing Lee's attention. "I'm Agent Gramm with homeland security. This is my associate Agent Jones."

"Homeland security?"

"Yes sir."

"What's homeland security doing on my doorstep?"

"We had some questions for you Mr. Morris, about the disappearance of Tim Welsh."

"Oh. Okay. Whaddya wanna know?"

"We just want to clear up some of the details of what you saw."

"Could you tell us what exactly you observed on the night of September 10th?"

Lee waggled his eyebrows. "Sure pretty lady."

Mara ignored his actions and stood there, her face unchanged.

"It was about midnight, and I was out on the running deck. I run every night no matter how late it is, gotta stay fit you know." He lifted his shirt and patted the toned abs underneath. Dean watched as the man's sad attempt to impress Mara recieved no reaction on her part. "And I had just gotten to the rear of the ship when I saw a man and a woman climb over the railing of the ship and jump into the water. I ran as fast as I could to see if I could help, but by the time I got there they had disappeared into the water. That's when I ran to get help."

"And the man was Tim Welsh?" Dean asked.

"No idea. The police showed me a picture of the guy, but it was dark and I didn't get a good look at the couple. He was about the right height and had the same color hair as the guy that went missing."

"What about the woman?" Mara questioned, "Did you see what she looked like?"

"She was average height and had light skin. From what I could see, her hair was blonde, but most of it was hidden by a scarf. I'll tell you this though...she wasn't nearly as breathtaking as you Agent Jones."

Mara's eyebrow raised, and she looked unimpressed by the man's feeble attempt at flattery. Dean might have felt like punching the guy, except that he was just so bad at flirting that Dean felt kinda bad for the guy.

"Anything else that you can remember that might be helpful to our case?" Mara asked.

The man stroked his chin, and shook his head. "I guess the only thing about it all that seemed strange to me was that it looked like they jumped in the water purposefully. Neither was struggling, and neither made a sound."

Dean nodded. "I think that will be all Mr. Morris."

"Thank you for your time," Mara added. Dean and Mara turned to leave.

"Agent Jones. Don't you have a card for me or maybe your phone number? I might think of somethin' else that could help your case." And Lee winked at her.

"Tell you what?" Mara broke out a smile and managed to keep from laughing at the guy. "I've got your number, and if I need anything at all from you..."

The man's eyes grew eager.

"I'll have my partner here give you a call." Mara and Dean watched as the man's face fell, and he slammed the door on the two agents. Dean watched Mara walk ahead of him feeling partly amused and partly sympathetic for the man she'd just metaphorically kicked in the stomach.

"What was up with the harsh rejection?" Dean asked as the two got back into the Impala.

"That man had all the charm of a dead python. It was obvious all he wants is to get into my pants, or any woman's pants for that matter. I was just the closest thing with breasts within a hundred feet."

Dean stared at Mara incredulously for a moment before turning the ignition.

"So now what? Do we go back to the motel or should we head to the ship to help out Sam and Cami?" Mara asked, changing the subject.

"You still got that list of cruises from Jake's room?"

"Back at the motel."

Dean shifted the car into drive. "Well then. I think we should go book ourselves a vacation."

**So I know this chapter didn't have much excitement, but I was trying to focus a little more on the romantic side of things. Please remember to hit me up with your comments, and I'll make sure this next chapter gets posted much sooner. :D**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey all! Hope I didn't keep you waiting too long. A quick thanks to Atala444, highlander348, and kindleflame5 for reviewing. Seriously, your reviews keep me excited about writing more chapters, so keep it up. :)**

Chapter 8- 125 Feet Under the Sea

"A strip club and a cruise in the same week. Maybe those angels are finally repaying us for everything we've done to help them."

Sam shook his head. "I don't think angels would send us on a cruise as repayment, and I really doubt they'd send you to a strip club."

"They would if they knew me." Dean fell back into the couch of his and Sam's cabin on the second deck of the ship. He began flipping through channels on the television in the room while Sam slid into the restroom to change into a pair of swim trunks and a t-shirt.

When Dean saw what his brother was wearing, he laughed. "Hey there Malibu Ken."

"I wouldn't make fun if I were you." And Sam through a pile of clothing at Dean. "Here's yours."

Dean looked at the forest green swim trunks with white palm trees on it and matching green shirt in his hands. "Hell no! I'm not putting this ridiculous stuff on!" He threw the clothes back at Sam and Sam threw them right back.

"Unless you want to draw attention to us, you will."

Dean huffed and glared down at the clothing.

Once Dean had finally replaced his jeans and long-sleeved shirt with the swim trunks and t-shirt, the boys headed out into the hall to wait for Cami and Mara. They hadn't been waiting more than five minutes before the two witches opened the door. Both men's eyes grew in awe as the women emerged. Cami was clad in a bright blue tankini with a matching sarong, and Mara had opted for a purple and lime green skirtini.

They walked up to the top deck together, discussing their plans.

"So our main objective for today," Sam said, "Is to try to find any potential candidates for the Encantado. So look for any woman wearing a hat that never takes the hat off. Watch to see if she takes it off, and if she doesn't, find some way to expose the top of her head."

They all emerged onto the deck of the ship where hundreds of other cruisers were spread out, swimming in the pool, laying in sun chairs, eating at tables, and looking out over the side of the deck at the view of mainland South Carolina.

Mara spotted a couple of available sun chairs and grabbed Cami's wrist. "See ya later boys," she said, sliding her sunglasses down over her eyes and pulling Cami along behind her.

Dean grinned, scanning the crowd, admiring all of the gorgeous women in scanty swimwear. "I'll say it again...Best. Job. Ever." And he walked off, headed for a group of women lounging at one corner of the nearest pool.

Sam watched his brother immerse himself in the throng of women and then started walking along the perimeter of the deck in search of women wearing hats.

Not all that surprisingly, there were only a handful of women wearing hats. Mara and Cami watched three of them remove there hats shortly after they spotted them. Another's hat blew off in the wind disappearing over the side of the boat. Two more yet joined the small crowd of ladies now surrounding Dean, who was chatting wildly about something obviously of much interest to the women. And the final woman, a tall, slender strawberry blonde with a great tan and a hot pink bikini had been approached by Sam.

"This may sound incredibly cliche, but how in the world could such a beautiful woman need to go an a single's cruise?" Sam asked the woman as she sat at one of the outdoor bars, mindlessly stirring her mojito.

She turned to see who the speaker was, and when she saw Sam standing above her, she definitely liked what she saw. She flashed Sam a huge white smile.

"I should ask you the same thing," She paused. "Except switch handsome fellow in for beatiful woman."

Sam laughed and sat down next to her.

"Sam Malone," he gave his alias and held out his hand for her to shake.

She took it and introduced herself. "Maggie Larson."

Sam gave the bartender his drink order, and turned slightly so he was facing the woman directly.

"So have you ever been on one of these before Maggie?"

"Quite a few actually." Maggie took a sip of her drink.

The bartender placed a beer in front of Sam."Tll be honest, I'm not sure how much fun I could actually have on a cruise by myself."

"You're here by yourself?"

"Not quite...my brother's here with me." He turned and pointed to Dean, who was now up to over a dozen women.

"Hmm...It doesn't look like he needs any help with getting women."

Sam chuckled. "No he doesn't."

"And what about you Sam? How's your luck with the ladies?"

***On the other side of the deck***

Cami and Mara continued to watch the two Winchester boys while they lay out in the sun trying to spot anymore newcomers wearing hats. But after number fourteen joined the Dean Winchester fan club, Mara decided it was time to go inside for awhile.

She walked back to the room and slipped on a pair of jean shorts and pink tank top then headed up to explore some of the bars and restaurants. After checking out seven or eight of the ship's restaurants, Mara eventually found one that wasn't obnoxiously loud or crowded with singles.

Mara walked into a bar with only a couple dozen patrons, most of which were talking quietly at small wooden tables throughout the room. Some honky-tonk music played in the background and a few televisions around the room were showing rodeos and football games.

Mara sat down on a barstool and asked the bartender for something sweet and powerful.

"I'd a thought you for a whiskey gal," a man sitting a couple of stools over said to Mara.

Mara glanced over at the man. He almost as tall as Sam with dirty blonde hair and a pair of matching sideburns. He was also quite tan and cowboy to the bone, from his deep southern accent to the matching brown stetson and cowboy boots.

Mara smiled. "Actually, I'm kind of a newbie. Just had my first shots of tequila the other night."

"How'd that go for ya?"

Mara shrugged. "Felt great. Tasted awful."

The bartender sat a tall glass filled with a brown concoction and garnished with a lime. "One long-island iced tea," the middle-aged man behind the bar said.

Mara looked curiously at the drink then took a sip. "That is good!" Mara exclaimed and took another long drink.

"Slow down there sweetheart," the cowboy warned Mara as he slid himself over to the barstool next to her. "Them things is dangerous. Unless your lookin' to get shit-faced."

Mara shrugged. "Maybe I am."

"Only reason smart, pretty woman like you'd wanna get drunk is if somethin's botherin' ya. Feel like talkin' to a stranger 'bout it. I make for an awful good listener."

"I would if I could. It's just been a tough couple of weeks."

The cowboy nodded. "I been there."

_Not possible_. Mara thought; nonetheless, it was kind of a relief to have somebody who just wanted to listen.

The cowboy offered up his hand. "Name's Ryan, Ryan Matthews. How 'bout you pretty lady?"

Mara shook Ryan's hand. "Mara Kelly."

"If I have my accents right, I'd say you're from England somewheres am I right?"

Mara nodded. "Yes. London. And you're from...somewhere in the south?"

"From the great state of Texas." The man tipped his hat.

Mara took another sip of her drink. Once more, the alcohol started to give her the feeling that she could do or say anything without consequence.

"You don't seem like yer all that happy 'bout bein' on a cruise." Ryan pointed out.

"I didn't really have a choice in the matter."

"You got yerself dragged along for the ride too huh?"

"Somethin' like that."

"My sister made me tag along on the cruise. I'll tell ya I wasn't none too thrilled about spending three days on a ship crowded with a bunch o men and women pinin' for love."

"You took the words right out of my mouth."

"I don't know though...meetin' you." The handsome cowboy smiled at Mara, "I'm thinkin' this might not be the worst idea my sister's ever had."

Mara blushed and sucked down the rest of her iced tea.

***Outside, on the top deck***

Cami watched her partner leave, and went back to searching the crowd. Cami lay there as another hour went by and then two hours. After all that time, Sam was still chatting with the beautiful blonde over at the bar. Dean had already managed to get the two women he'd been entertaining to remove their hats, but Sam had not yet succeeded in that regard.

The young witch watched as Sam said something to the woman. She laughed and ran a hand down his left arm. Up until that point, Cami had been perfectly fine with their innocent flirting, but the moment that hussy touched Sam, the whole game changed. Cami decided on a plan of action.

Cami stood up and walked over to the bar, just a little ways down from Sam and Maggie. She ordered a bloody mary. As soon as she was handed the drink, Cami passed Sam; and as she got to Maggie, she pretended to trip and threw the entire drink all over her. Maggie jumped up, looking incredibly startled.

"Oh no!" Cami cried out. "Oh gosh! I am so sorry. I'm such a klutz." She grabbed a bunch of napkins and started to sop up the spilled drink. Sam acted quickly and helped Cami clean up as well. He had trouble keeping a straight face as he watched the young witch's acting skills, not sure if she actually had a plan or if maybe she was just jealous and was trying to get back at the girl he was fake-flirting with.

Maggie grabbed some napkins too, and started cleaning herself off. "It's alright. I've got a dozen more suits with me. I'll just get cleaned up and put on another."

"Oh! Oh look!" And Cami grabbed the big white sunhat right off of Maggie's head. "There's bloody mary all over your hat. Oh goodness. You must let me give you something to replace all of this."

Maggie shook her head, still smiling. "Honestly, I was gettin' tired of that old thing anyway."

Sam stood and checked for a hole on Maggie's head, but there was none to be found. Cami continued to apologize until Maggie excused herself to go get cleaned up, promising Sam that she'd see him later.

"Apparently I wasn't working fast enough for you," Sam teased.

"I was starting to worry that you might not be able to check what was under that hat until she took you back to her room." Cami shoved all of the dirty napkins in a garbage nearby.

Sam laughed.

"Don't." Cami hid her face in her hands. "Envy green is not my best color."

"I think it looks pretty good on you actually."

Cami rolled her eyes. "Looks like all the women in hats out here are in the clear."

Sam nodded and glanced over at the pool where Dean was enjoying a game of volleyball with eleven women. Then Sam looked around for Cami's partner. "Where'd Mara go?"

"She headed inside to check out some of the restaurants."

"Good idea." Sam checked his watch. It was already six o'clock. They were all scheduled for dinner at seven.

When Cami arrived back at the cabin to change, she found Mara already inside doing her makeup and hair.

"How did things go?" Mara asked Cami.

"None of the girls we saw were the Encantando. How about you?" Cami retrieved her bag from the closet and started pulling out supplies: makeup, flat iron, hair spray, etc.

"I checked eight restaurants and none had women with hats on in them," Mara said oddly enthusiastically.

"You seem like you're in a good mood."

"Oh I am Cami. I think I met a guy." As she spoke, Mara's eyes lit up and it seemed as though any second, she might go bouncing about the room.

"Really?" Cami crowded in next to Mara and began applying some makeup.

"Yes." Mara beemed. "His name is Ryan Matthews, and he's from Texas. He has the sexiest accent. He's handsome and smart and intuitive."

Cami sat there, a bit taken aback by the news. She'd have staked her life on the fact that Mara had feelings for Dean. "But we're on a case, and we'll be gone in just a couple of days."

Mara sighed. "I know. But if I really liked him, it's not like I couldn't make it work."

Cami nodded, trying not to imagine all the ways this could go wrong.

"You know." Mara sprayed her wrists and neck with a floral smelling perfume. "You don't seem all that happy for me. I would assume that my mate would be excited. I mean c'mon. I met a really nice guy who seems to like me."

"I'm sorry," Cami shook off the feeling of disappointment and smiled, "Of course sweetie. I am excited for you. Now tell me exactly what did Mr. Texas look like?"

***Over in the Winchester's cabin***

"So Talia and Rose said they'd be at the Sunset Night Club after 8:30," Dean said enthusiastically as he buttoned up his blue, collared dress shirt.

Sam finished tightening a black and silver tie over his black dress shirt. "Dean, remember we're on a job."

"Hey. Don't worry. I'll be visiting plenty of the clubs tonight. I've got Talia and Rose at 8:30. Jeanie at 9 at Hip-Hop City, the Hansen triplets at 9:30 at Club Ecstasy, and the list goes on." Dean bragged with a satisfied grin.

Sam shook his head at how shallow his brother could be. The Winchesters met Cami and Mara at their assigned table for dinner.

"So it sounds like none of us had any luck today," Sam said as they read over their menus.

"At least not with finding the Encantado," Dean said. He thought landing himself a string of dates qualified as luck.

"I'm sure we'll find her," Mara said, again much more cheerfully than usual.

Her improved demeanor did not escape the Winchester boys. "What's got you in such a good mood?" Dean asked.

Mara smiled up at him. "I just had a really good afternoon."

"Here. Here." Dean held up his beer, and Mara did the same with her lemonade.

"So about tonight..." Sam turned the subject back to business, "It looks like most of the ship's passengers will be at the night club's on board. And since the Encantado is supposed to be attracted to parties, it would make since that she'd be found in a place like a dance club." Sam handed each person at the table a map of the ship. "I've marked all the clubs. I think the smartest plan of action is for everyone to spend a bit of time at each location and keep your eyes peeled for our hatted woman."

They all looked at their maps. There were eight clubs altogether. Cami and Sam had already made plans to go visit each location together. Dean and Mara both took a moment, mentally mapping out their evenings to match up with previously made plans.

Immediately after the meal, Mara and Cami headed back to their cabin. Mara put on a slinky black and gold sequin mini-dress while Cami slipped into a teal halter dress, with a loose, flowy skirt that cut off at the knee.

The men, on the other hand, both took this opportunity to change back into jeans and t-shirts. Dean sighed in relief at being able to wear his normal garb.

Mara had already planned to meet Ryan at one of the clubs on the list. She found him sitting at the bar inside Club Ecstasy with a glass of whiskey. As Mara approached, he whistled. "You're prettier than a cactus flower at midnight."

Mara giggled. "I'm not sure what that means, but it sounded lovely."

Ryan stood and offered his hand to Mara. "Whaddya say to a dance."

"I'd love to."

Mara let Ryan lead her out to the center of the dance floor, and the two of them joined in with the rest of the dancing couples. They swayed and bounced to the beat of the techno remixes. After a couple of songs, Mara and her cowboy headed back over to the bar so that Mara could get something to drink.

She ordered a double shot of tequila, something quick and easy to help her loosen up even more. Mara threw back the shots, and when she was done she banged her hand on the table. "Woo!"

Ryan laughed at her reaction.

"Let's go check out some other clubs in the ship," Mara suggested loudly.

"You got it baby doll." Ryan picked Mara up off the bar stool and set her on the floor, so that they could head to the next club on her list.

***Outside Rock Heaven Nightclub***

"I'll be honest," Cami said as her and Sam headed toward the first club, "This isn't really my scene. You know...I don't go to dance clubs."

"Well then, we can spend the evening uncomfortable together." Sam opened the door to the club, letting Cami in ahead of him. Inside, the crowd was laughing and clapping and singing to the music booming through the speakers. "Let's just find this thing," Sam yelled over the noise.

Cami nodded and the two of them shoved their way through the crowd searching for anybody in a hat. They found a few women who they hadn't seen in hats earlier that day. And one by one they found ways to remove their hats or scarves, checking for a blowhole.

Three hours later, Sam and Cami had visited every club and checked every woman with a hat. They'd spotted Dean once enjoying the company of three almost identical women. _Must be the triplets_. Sam thought.

And at final club they visited, Cami found Mara rubbing up against a tall, blonde man in a stetson.

"Hey Cami!" Mara waved to her partner, and Cami walked over to where Mara and Ryan were at on the dance floor. "This is Ryan," Mara yelled over the music. "Ryan this is Cami. She and I came on the cruise together."

Ryan shook Cami's hand and tipped his hat. "Nice to meet you. You havin' a good time?"

"Yeah. Though obviously not as much fun as Mara here." Cami smiled at Mara. The man was just as handsome and charismatic as she'd described.

"Would you like to have a drink with us?" Ryan asked Cami.

Cami shook her head. "No thank you. I have to get going. But you take good care of my mate."

"Yes ma'am."

Cami turned and headed back outside the club where Sam was waiting for her. "Please tell me we don't have to start from the beginning," Cami moaned, "I don't think I can take anymore insanely loud music or drunk men with wandering hands."

"Actually, I thought it might be a good idea to check out the rest of the boat. It's possible we missed her and she's already found a victim, in which case we should probably start looking outside on the decks."

Cami nodded and walked alongside Dean to the deck where runner's could go. It seemed a logical place to start since that was where the witness had spotted the Encantado before.

Just before they reached the stairs, someone grabbed Sam's shoulder and turned him around.

"Sam!" An excited and intoxicated Maggie greeted him. She threw her arms around Sam and kissed him on the cheek. Maggie turned to her two friends. "This is the man I was telling you about. Gorgeous right?"

Maggie turned back to face Sam. "I have been searching everywhere for you. We never got the chance to make plans for this evening. But here you are, so why don't we go find some place to get down 'n' dirty."

Cami cleared her throat, alerting Maggie to her presence.

Maggie looked over at Cami in confusion at which point she noticed her and Sam's hands laced together. Maggie frowned and looked back up at Cami. "Aren't you the bitch who threw your drink all over me!?"

Cami was taken aback by Maggie's hostility. Earlier she'd been incredibly nice about the whole incident. _Then again earlier I wasn't competition_. Cami thought.

Maggie continued to yell, "You tramp! You did it on purpose didn't you? You thought you could slip in and steal Sam's attention." Maggie stepped forward in an attempt to intimidate Cami.

Cami didn't say anything. She didn't feel the need to provoke the woman anymore than she already had. Maggie raised her hand to slap Cami, but Sam reached out and grabbed Maggie's wrist before she had the chance.

"Please don't hit my date," Sam said calmly.

Maggie stared at Sam incredulously. "You're date? You're date?!" Maggie swung her other arm, and punched Sam in the face. "You bastard!" Once Sam had let go of her wrist, Maggie turned and stalked off with her two friends at her side.

"Sam!" Cami cried out. Maggie's punch had resulted in a bloody nose, and Sam had to hold both his hands over it to keep blood from getting everywhere. Cami led Sam over to the elevator and pressed the down button. "Let's get you back to the room."

"'kay." Sam leaned his head back as they got onto the elevator.

Cami couldn't help but find the whole confrontation with Maggie a bit funny. She smiled to herself.

Once they were safely inside Sam's cabin, Cami got a towel from the bathroom and held it up to Sam's nose.

"Better?" she asked.

"Much." They waited in silence until it stopped bleeding. Then Sam stepped into the bathroom to wash the blood off his face.

Cami stood at the window, watching the waves outside and staring at the stars that filled the deep blue night sky.

"Wouldn't it be lovely if we were on this boat just for fun. Not because we were chasing some crazy sea-creature," Cami said as Sam re-entered the main room of the cabin. She turned around to face Sam, and her breath caught. Sam was standing there shirtless. (His t-shirt had gotten some blood on it.) Cami gazed at every muscle and every scar. She noticed the strange tattoo on the left side of his chest.

Cami stepped closer to Sam and reached out for the tattoo. "What is it?"

Sam looked down where her fingers touched the ink-stained skin. "It prevents demonic possession."

Cami smiled. "Of course it does."

Sam marveled at how beautiful Cami's smile was. His hand automatically reached out, and he ran his fingers through her hair. Cami leaned into his hand slightly and turned her gaze up to his face.

Sam, didn't have a single doubt. All the reasons he'd ever given himself before for not getting involved, for not falling for a girl; they didn't apply. He leaned down and kissed Cami. Cami kissed him back, running her hands down his chest.

Sam tingled at the feel of her touch on his skin. Within seconds, their kisses hastened growing more passionate. Sam reached around and untied the back of Cami's dress. She let the dress fall to the floor. Sam turned Cami around, and laid her down on the bed, placing kisses on every exposed part of her body. Cami's breathing quickened. She stopped him momentarily to get Sam out of his pants, and then the kisses continued...

***Upstairs in Spin City Nightclub***

Ryan and Mara had spent about a half an hour at each club, so by midnight they found themselves at the last club that Mara needed to visit, Spin City. She'd found a few women with hats. With two of them, Mara pretended to bump into them and knocked off the hats, and with the third she didn't have to do anything. Cami took care of it before she got the chance. After Mara had deemed the final club a hat-free zone, she focused all of her energy into having a good time with her handsome slice of Texas.

Dean also found himself finishing off the night at Spin City. He'd just bought a gorgeous redhead named Penny her third shot of patron when he spotted Mara out on the dance floor, grinding up against the tall, blonde cowboy. That familiar, yet unwanted, flood of jealousy began to overtake Dean. He grabbed the redhead by the hand and led her out to the dance floor close to where Mara and Ryan were dancing. Dean pretended not to see Mara, but he made sure that Mara got a good look at him.

Despite Mara's attraction to Ryan, the moment she spotted Dean with the gorgeous redhead, she found her mood went from elated to irritated. Dean caught Mara's expression change out of the corner of his eye. Proud of himself for attaining the desired result, he beckoned another single girl over to dance with him and the redhead.

As she watched Dean's display, Mara was struck by the fact that Dean might actually be trying to make her jealous._ Or he's being his idiot self. Or both_. Either way, Mara decided to take it a step further. She turned herself around to face Ryan, and kissed him. Mara hadn't kissed anyone in a very long time, not since before she'd entered the Auror academy. The man's lips felt so soft and strong. Mara started to forget that she was kissing Ryan just to piss of Dean. She wrapped her arms around Ryan's neck, and he grabbed her hips pulling her closer.

Dean stopped dancing and pushed away the two girls crowding in on him. He marched over to Mara and Ryan and pulled the witch away from her date dragging her to the edge of the crowd. "What was that?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about you making out with the Walker Texas Ranger over there. I thought we were on a job."

"Oh, but what you're doing is okay?!"

"That's besides the point."

"How is that besides the point?! You were standing there deliberately trying to piss me off or make me jealous!"

"Make you jealous?!" Dean laughed. "Why on earth would I want to make you jealous?!"

"Well why on earth did you almost kiss me the other night?!" Mara crossed her arms.

"You thought I was going to kiss you?!" Dean asked, denying the truth.

"Yes. Because that's exactly what you were going to do." Mara poked Dean in the chest. "You're just too scared to admit it."

"Scared?! You're insane woman."

At that point, Ryan walked over and confronted Dean, "Is there a problem here partner?"

"Yeah there is partner," Dean stepped forward and slapped away the cowboy's hat. Mara gasped because as the black stetson fell to the ground, it revealed an enormous hole in the back of his head. Ryan's eyes glowed a bright blue and he snarled at Mara and Dean before running out of the club at a dead sprint.

Dean immediately took off after him, and Mara followed close behind once she'd kicked off her heels. She managed to get her wand out of the wand holder she'd attached to the upper portion of her thigh.

By the time they caught up with the creature, it was already diving off the side of the boat.

"Dammit!" Dean slammed his hand against the rail.

"It's not over yet," Mara said. She aimed her wand at the creature and shot a spell directly into the center of its back. The Encantado didn't react. It swam as fast as it could away from the boat.

"What the hell was that?!" Dean yelled. "How could you miss that shot?!"

Mara grinned. "I didn't miss."

"Well he got away didn't he?" Dean pointed out furiously.

"Not really. I put a tracking spell on him."

"A tracking spell?" Dean paused his tirade.

"Yes. A tracking spell. We will be able to locate that creature, wherever it is, for the next 48 hours."

Dean's eyebrows shot up, and he actually looked impressed. "Well, alright then. Let's go find Sam and Cami.

***Down in the Winchesters cabin***

Cami lay next to Sam with only a thin sheet covering them. The window to the cabin was open, letting the cool sea breeze glide over them. Sam mindlessly ran his fingers in circles across Cami's back. And Cami occasionally placed a kiss on Sam's chest.

"I think this a much more enjoyable way to spend the evening than dancing in a club with sweaty people and loud music," Cami said.

"Agreed." Sam kissed the top of Cami's head.

Cami smiled and leaned up on her elbows. She glanced over at the digital clock by the bed. "We should probably get back to work though. I have a feeling Dean and Mara are going to be a little too distracted for the rest of the night."

Sam pulled Cami closer and kissed her. "I'm pretty distracted right now too."

Cami giggled. As she leaned down to kiss Sam once more, they both heard someone unlocking the door to the room. Fortunately, Sam had dead bolted the door.

"Hey Sammy?" Dean called out. "You wanna unlock the door?"

Cami and Sam scrambled to find their clothes. Once Cami had located her panties and dress, she apparated into the bathroom of her and Mara's cabin. Sam quickly threw on his pants and shirt and unlocked the door.

Dean looked around suspiciously at the mangled sheets on the bed. "Watcha doin' in here Sam?"

"Just uh. Takin' a nap."

"A nap huh?"

"Yeah." Sam started to make the bed. "Bad dreams."

"Whatever." Dean sounded doubtful. "Mara and I found the Encantado, and she put a tracking spell on the thing. So wake up. We got work to do."

***In the witches' cabin***

"Cami?" Mara knocked on the bathroom door. "You in there?"

"Yeah," she struggled to put on her clothes in the tiny room. "Be out in a sec."

Cami managed to get her dress back on, and walked out into the cabin.

"You okay?" Mara asked as she searched the room, opening drawers and cabinets.

Cami sighed in relief that Mara didn't seem to suspect anything. _I hope Dean didn't suspect anything either_. Cami thought. "Yeah I'm fine. What are you looking for?"

"A map." Mara sifted through all of the papers the cruise line had provided. "Aha!" She spread out the map she'd found on the coffee table in front of the couch. "Dean and I found the Encantado, and I put a tracking spell on him."

"Him?" Cami walked over to look at the map too.

Mara looked over at her partner and frowned. "Yes. It was Ryan."

"Cowboy Ryan?"

Mara nodded. There was a knock at the door, and Cami stood up to answer it. Dean and Sam walked inside, directly over to where Mara was hunched over the map. She recited a spell and moved her wand over the map. As she did so, a bright red dot moved across the surface of the paper.

"So that's the Encantado?" Sam asked staring down at the red dot.

"Yeah."

"Well now that we know we can find Flipper, we better get started on a plan. You do know how to kill these things right?" Dean asked his brother.

"I think so, but we're gonna need to get some stuff from the ship's kitchen. And Cami, you or Mara might need to apparate to shore to get a couple of supplies."

An hour later, the Winchesters, Mara, and Cami stood at the rear of the boat prepared to go after the Encantado. All four had located diving suits and were carrying spear guns with spears soaked in chili powder. Per Dean's request, he also had on a scuba tank and mask while the rest of the group each had a ball of gillyweed.

"Dean, you're gonna slow us all down. Just take some gillyweed and ditch the tank," Sam tried to reason with his brother.

"No way. I'm not swallowing some mumbo jumbo magic ball of goo. Besides, how are any of you gonna work the gps with webbed hands? Now let's go."

One by one Mara, Cami, and Sam swallowed the gillyweed; and within seconds, they'd each sprouted gills and webbed hands and feet.

Dean jumped in and led the way with the gps and a flashlight; and just as he'd promised, he kept up pace. Within an hour, they reached the gps coordinates of the Encantado; but all that could be seen was dark water and a few fish.

They looked at one another, and Sam pointed down. And suddenly, Mara was pulled down fast and hard by a set of sharp teeth clamped around her ankle. Mara kicked, trying to release herself from whatever had hold of her; but whatever it was, it wouldn't let go.

Cami and the Winchesters dove down, following Mara and her captor. When, they reached the floor of the ocean where they were located, Mara was nowhere to be seen. The group searched the area looking for any sign of the witch or the Encantado, and just as she was starting to lose hope, Cami spotted a hole in the ground. She waved to the boys to get their attention, and they followed her into the dark tunnel underneath the ocean's floor.

When they emerged from the tunnel, they found themselves in a large underwater cavern. The cavern walls sparkled like diamonds, and the only source of light was hundreds of glowing crystals that protruded from the ceiling. Colorful anemone and rocks littered the floor of the cave, and thousands of tiny sea creatures swam about.

Cami and Sam gasped. Dean, on the other hand, could care less about some pretty rocks. He was on the hunt. It only took a second for the other two to get refocused. The three continued swimming, searching for Mara.

When they found her, she was chained to a portion of the cave wall, her spear gun gone from her possession. Cami swam over to Mara, letting the two Winchesters watch for the Encantado. Just as she reached Mara, Cami screamed and curled up in a ball. Her stomach felt like it being ripped in half. Sam felt something speed past him in the water and turned to find a pink, dolphin-shaped creature with pointed teeth and glowing eyes headed straight for Cami.

Sam pointed his spear gun at the creature and fired. It pierced the Encantado's flesh and the creature let out an ear-piercing wail. With the creature injured and no longer focused on the fight, the pain in Cami's gut faded and she returned to rescuing her partner.

Cami pulled her wand from inside her diving suit and unlocked Mara's chains. The creature continued to wail until finally it closed its eyes and sank to the base of the cave.

As Cami and Mara joined the Winchesters, two more pink dolphins appeared from behind a large cliff and sped straight at the group. Mara, without her spear gun, pulled out her wand and began aiming curses at the creatures. But nothing worked. Whatever their skin was made of, it protected them from magical weaponry.

One of the Encantado swam straight at Dean. He tried to aim his spear gun, but the creature got to him first. It nashed its teeth and ripped a small chunk of skin from Dean's right shoulder. Worse yet, it also got hold of the hose to his oxygen tank and ripped it in half.

At the same time, Sam ducked out of the way of the other Encantado. It turned around and swam back at him. He ducked again, and when the creature came about once more, Sam felt the same gut-wrenching pain that Cami had earlier. He groaned and respond. But the pain grew worse and worse until Sam could no longer see straight and he wrapped his hands around his torso. The Encantado grinned and swam at him again. This time Cami was ready, she swam in front of Sam and shot her spear at a spot right between the creatures eyes. The Encantado didn't even make a sound. The spear pierced its brain, and killed it instantly.

Meanwhile, Mara had to think fast. She needed to get Dean to the surface and fast. She grabbed the spear that Dean had shot earlier and swam straight at the attacking Encantado. She shoved it straight into the creatures open mouth as the creature bit down. It's teeth pierced her arm, and Mara screamed. She freed her arm and grabbed Dean's hand. The two apparated out of the cave and back into Mara's cabin on the cruise ship.

Dean let out a huge gasp, breathing in deep breaths of air. Mara rushed to grab a bottle from the dresser and threw back the potion which dissolved the gillyweed in her stomach. Her gills disappeared and she could breathe again. But before Mara could manage to close up the deep gashes in her arm and ankle, she passed out from pain and loss of blood.

Dean quickly grabbed one of the ropes from the curtains on the cabin window and tied it around Mara's arm as a turnicat. Then he picked up the witch and sat her up on the couch, electing her ankle on the table. He slapped Mara's face lightly. "Mara! C'mon. Gotta wake up." When she didn't wake, Dean rushed over to his cabin and found his first-aid kit.

"Dammit! Sam. Cami. Where are you guys?" Dean said aloud in frustration.

***Down in Encante***

Sam and Cami had come through the battle with the Encantados unscathed, but they both wanted to make sure that there were no more left. They gathered up their spear guns and reloaded them then began searching the cave for signs of any more of the creatures. They came upon another tunnel system and followed it. At the end, the tunnel opened up into another cave, full of cages. Inside each cage was a human.

Sam swam up to one of the cages. He recognized the man inside as Jake Young. Cami used her wand to unlock the cage. Once it was open, they both swam inside. Sam checked to see if Jake was alive and found that somehow, he was still breathing.

Cami pointed up, trying to tell Sam that they should get him to the surface. Sam nodded and grabbed Jake's arm. The moment Sam touched Jake, his eyes popped open. He looked from Sam to Cami and then he shrieked, making the same noise that the first Encantado had made when Sam shot it. Sam grabbed Cami and quickly retreated from the cage, slamming the door and locking it behind him.

When Sam and Cami turned to look back at Jake, he'd transformed into a pink dolphin, just like the rest of the Encantado. Cami looked around. One by one the rest of the humans in cages woke and transformed into Enctantado.

The creatures started going crazy, slamming up against the bars of their cages. Cami frowned as she realized that she was going to have to kill all of the victims of the Encantado. Her and Sam aimed their spear guns at two of the Encantado and shot. They reloaded and continued to take out every last creature. Once they were all dead, Cami took Sam's hand and apparated the two of them back to the the girls' room.

"Finally!" Dean cried out, "Where the hell have you two been!?".

"We had to get rid of the rest of them," Sam said once he'd taken the potion to neutralize gillyweed.

"Mara!" Cami rushed to her still unconscious friend. She looked over at Dean. "What happened?"

"One of them bit her. She lost a lot of blood, but I got 'er closed up."

"You what?" Cami peeked at Mara's arm. Dean had expertly stitched up all the gashes. "Bloody hell. This is awful!"

"Hey," Dean looked offended, "There's doctors who can't stitch that well."

"I don't think that's what she meant Dean," Sam rolled his eyes.

Everyone stopped talking as Mara began to stir. "Ughhh. What happened?" Mara looked down where her arm and ankle was burning in pain. "And what is this?"

"They're called stitches, and I fixed you up after the Encantado practically gnawed your arm off," Dean once again sounded offended.

"Bloody hell! It hurts!"

"I'll go see if I can find something for the pain," Dean offered and headed out toward the on-board medical facilities.

"You know...I'm tired of being the one to get hurt on these jobs," Mara whined, "I vote next time one of you two gets beaten up by the monster."

Sam chuckled, and Cami smiled at her partner.

"On the bright side," Cami said, "We still have two more days to relax on the ship."

Mara sighed and closed her eyes. "You guys just wake me up when we land."

**Remember to please review and let me know your thoughts! :D**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hi everyone. Have I kept you waiting long enough? So sorry it has taken me so long to update. This was a difficult chapter to write, and worse, I've been ten times busier with work. I will keep trying to update at least every couple of weeks in the future (hopefully more often at times.) A big thanks to kindleflame5 and Atala444 for your reviews. Hope you all enjoy chapter 9.**

Chapter 9- Mara and Cami, The Vampire Slayers

Dean would never say it out loud, but he felt guilty for being the reason that Mara had almost lost an arm, the reason she had a huge ring of deep gashes around her upper arm, the reason she was in an enormous amount of pain.

For the rest of the cruise, Dean barely left Mara's side, not that she really noticed. Whatever pain medication Dean pilfered for Mara, it knocked her out for about twenty-two hours a day; and the other two hours, she was pretty out of it. Nonetheless, Dean spent most of his time on Cami's and Mara's couch watching car shows and action movies.

Sam recognized Dean's behavior; it wasn't the first time he'd felt responsible for getting someone injured...or worse. Sam convinced Cami to just let Dean stay with Mara while they enjoyed laying out in the sun, going to shows, and questioning each other.

"So could you tell me how you and Dean got started in all this? Hunting ghosts and monsters and demons." Cami and Dean lounged on a couple of chairs in a secluded corner one of the upper decks.

"Actually we grew up around hunting."

"You mean you've been hunting since you were children?"

"Sort of. We didn't actually hunt until we got a bit older, at least not until we were teenagers. Our dad got us started in it."

"How?" Cami frowned. "Why?" _Why would a father do something like that?_

Sam sighed. He knew eventually they would cross this bridge. It was never easy to talk about certain parts of the past, but it was necessary.

"Because our mom was a hunter; and when I was six months old a demon killed her. After that, our dad made it his mission to hunt all these creature while searching out the demon that killed our mom and getting his revenge."

"Oh." Cami processed the information for a moment. "Did you always know that this was what you were going to do? What you wanted to do?"

"Yes and no. For most of my life, I knew that I'd be a hunter. But I did try to quit a few times. Actually I went to college and got accepted into law school."

"Law school?" Cami smiled and nodded. "Yeah I could see that."

"You think?"

"Sure. You're smart. You're tough, and you look good in a suit."

Sam laughed.

"So you didn't go to law school?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Dean came and got me one weekend to go on a hunting trip because Dad had gone missing. While we were gone, the demon that killed our mom, killed my fiance Jessica."

"Your fiance?"

Sam nodded.

Cami wasn't really sure what to say. It's not like she was angry or hurt or anything. But, truth be told, anytime a woman hears a words like "was my fiance" or "ex-girlfriend", it's kind of like a slap to the face, reminding them that "Hey! You're not the only girl he's ever loved."

Sam watched Cami's expression, and when she'd showed no sign of shock or anger, he continued. "We did eventually find the demon and kill him."

Cami ignored any of the resentful feelings she was having and listened to more of the story. Sam went on to tell her all about the demon blood and Azezal. About dying and Dean's deal. About Dean going to Hell. And anything else she wanted to know.

Later at dinner, Cami told Sam all about Hogwarts. He already knew everything from the books, but there were things that were left out, and then there was the personal experiences that Cami had at school.

"So did you play Quidditch?" Sam asked, keeping his voice low. Passengers at nearby tables would start to stare and maybe even complain if they overheard the strange conversation Sam and Cami were having.

"Yup. I was a beater."

"That is awesome. Did you and Mara both play?"

"Yes. Mara was a chaser for Ravenclaw."

"Mara wasn't in Gryffindor with you?"

Cami shook her head.

"I just assumed..."

Cami shrugged swallowing a bite of her potatoes. "Most aurors do come from Gryffindor. As I recall, the sorting hat had a tough time deciding which house to put Mara in, but it finally chose Ravenclaw."

"Hmmm...I wonder what house I would have been in?" Sam wondered aloud.

"Probably Gryffindor...or Slytherin."

***In Mara and Cami's Cabin***

Mara woke at nine on the last morning of the cruise. Sam and Cami had gone up top for breakfast; and there was Dean, sitting on the couch in Mara's cabin, watching some car show where they were rebuilding old cars for celebrities.

Mara moved and whimpered as the movement sent pain shooting through her shoulder.

Dean looked over when he heard the sound. "Hey. Need some more pain pills?"

"No. No more of those."

Dean looked surprised. "Look. You don't gotta be a hero. I know how much somethin' like that hurts."

"It's not so bad," Mara lied. She cringed as she sat up in bed holding back another cry of pain.

Dean frowned at her and shoved the bottle of pills in her unharmed hands. "Please take them."

Mara sighed. "But I'm tired of being tired and so groggy that I can't even take a shower. I really need a shower."

Dean smirked. "Then just take one of the pain killers. It'll take the edge off, but you won't feel as drowsy."

"Fine." Mara popped open the bottled and took one of the large, white pills. She threw the container of pills back to Dean and sat up at the side of the bed. Mara noticed a portion of bandaging sticking out from under the sleeve of Dean's shirt.

"How's your shoulder?" she asked.

"Fine." Dean shrugged as though to show her that it wasn't bad at all. "Sam got me patched up after you were taken care of."

"Good." Mara attempted to use the bed as a brace to help her stand up. She put most of her weight on her right ankle. The left one had been ravaged by the Encantado, dragging her through the water.

Dean reached out to help her, but she stopped him. "I got it." Mara gripped at the walls to support her. The one thing Mara hadn't taken into account though was the movement of the boat. The swells that morning were huge, and the boat rocked. Mara lost her balance and fell back onto the bed.

Before Dean could get in some smart ass remark, Mara's phone rang. She started to try to get up again, but Dean held her down.

"I'll get it." He rummaged through the closet until he found the phone in Mara's jacket pocket. The phone was still ringing by the time he found it. "Don't you have voicemail?" Dean asked as the phone finished its tenth ring.

"It's not your normal muggle cell phone. It will keep ringing as long as it can detect that I'm within audible range."

Dean looked down at the phone now on its twelfth ring with an expression of bewilderment. Mara smiled at his reaction. She took the phone and answered it.

"Good Morning, Mr. Potter."

"What about the Winchesters?"

"Of course sir. We'll be there."

Mara hung up the phone. She looked over at Dean waiting impatiently for her to repeat what Harry had said.

"Mr. Potter wants Cami and I to meet him in his office in two hours."

"But not me and Sam?"

Mara shook her head. "He said that we're to return to our usual Auror duties until you boys run across another lead."

"Really? He's trusting us?" Dean sounded suspicious.

"Guess so."

"I figured you'd have something to say about that."

"I trust you," Mara gave a small smile. After all they'd been through, she'd had no choice.

"'Bout time." Dean muttered. Mara rolled her eyes as she dialed Cami to tell her about the meeting. When she got off the phone, Dean was there waiting with a hand out to help her up.

Mara sighed and let him help her limp her way into the bathroom.

"I can handle it from here, thanks," Mara said, grabbing the sink for support.

Dean smiled and exited the bathroom. Twenty minutes later, Mara emerged dressed and ready to go. Dean hurried over to help her out of the bathroom and onto the couch.

"Why haven't you healed yourself like you did before?" Dean asked.

Mara had to think about how to word her answer so that he would understand.

"With the other injuries, they were clean, easy to close, simple cuts or gashes so that the tissues could be fused together. The Encantando bites ripped away pieces. They were ragged and deep, and they would require a healer. Or in this case a muggle skilled in first-aid."

"I don't know about skilled. Have you looked underneath those bandages?"

"Yes. But I have no idea what it should look like."

"You mean you don't know how to check for infection or anything?"

Mara shook her head with little concern. Dean did look concerned.

"You need to let me take a look at the stitches."

Mara was stunned by Dean's reaction. _How could anyone say no to someone who seemed so troubled?_

"Okay." Mara shifted on the couch so that Dean would have better access to her shoulder. She was wearing a tank top, and all she had to do was move aside the strap so that Dean could get to the dressing.

Dean sat down on the couch next to Mara and peeled off the bandages. Underneath were the crude stitches holding together the gashes and surrounded by pieces of missing skin. He didn't touch the wounds knowing that any pressure whatsoever would cause a great deal of pain for Mara.

"No infection."

"Good."

Dean covered the stitches back up. Mara scrunched up her face and ground her teeth as the gauze touched the wounds making her shoulder feel as though it was on fire.

Dean noticed her reaction. "Sorry."

"I'm fine." Mara sucked in a deep breath and turned to face Dean, moving her shoulder strap back into place. Once again, Mara found herself dangerously close to the eldest Winchester's face.

It was moments like these where Mara forgot about how pigheaded and annoying Dean could be. His green eyes mirrored all the pain and guilt he had been feeling over the past two days. It was at that moment that Mara also noticed something else...

"You have no scars." Mara tilted her head examining his face.

"Yeah," Dean leaned back, turning away from Mara and from the intense gravity of their positions. "That's Castiel's doing. I used to have a lot of them."

"Yeah? What was your worst?"

Dean chuckled.

***In one of the ship's restaurants***

Cami frowned as she hung up the phone.

"What is it? Is Mara okay?" Sam asked reading her expression.

"Mara's fine." Cami looked up at Sam. "Mr. Potter is reassigning us back to our regular duties until you get another lead on the Leviathans."

"You're leaving?"

Cami nodded.

Sam let out a disappointed sigh.

"It was kind of inevitable," Cami said, giving Sam a half-smile.

"I get that. It just caught me by surprise."

"Me too."

"How soon?"

"We're supposed to be back there in two hours."

Sam looked down at the half-eaten plate of food which no longer held any interest for him. He looked back up to find Cami watching him. Sam abandoned his breakfast and nodded Cami in the direction of the restaurants exit. "C'mon."

Cami assumed that they were heading back to the cabin, so they could get packed. But Sam led her to the back of the ship, to the secluded little spot where they'd spent most of their trip. It was completely deserted at the moment since most of the passengers were off having breakfast or getting packed up for departure.

Cami caught on to Sam's intentions and before he could get hold of her, Cami was already latched onto Sam. Their goodbye kiss lasted almost twenty minutes.

Cami stayed wrapped in Sam's arms after the kiss. "I can always apparrate in to see you."

"But only if you know where you're going. And only if I'm alone and you're alone."

She understood what he meant. _I probably won't be able to see him until they got another lead_.

"I'll call you."

"Such a muggle thing to say," Sam joked.

Cami laughed and leaned up to give Sam one more kiss before they had to head back to the cabin. And that kiss lasted twenty-five minutes.

***In Mara's and Cami's Cabin***

Mara had gotten Dean to get all of her belongings in her bag while they continued talking about nothing of significance. When Sam and Cami finally returned, Mara looked over at the clock. They were supposed to meet with Mr. Potter in forty-five minutes.

"You'd better hurry up and pack," Mara said to her partner.

"I know." Cami quickly started stuffing clothing and toiletries into her tiny bag.

"So you get to go back to fighting all the dark wizards of the world," Dean stated.

"Yeah. That's what Aurors do. Just be sure you alert us as soon as you get another lead. This is still our assignment too," Mara warned.

"Hey there woman! You just said you trusted me."

"To an extent."

Dean threw up his hands and headed out the door. "I give up. See ya."

Sam watched his brother leave and turned back toward the witches. "I suppose that's it for now then huh?"

Cami nodded.

"Suppose so," Mara replied.

"I'm sure we'll see you soon," Sam said in earnest, "The Leviathans don't stay quiet for long."

Again Cami nodded. Sam headed for the door.

"Bye Mara. Bye Cami."

Cami waved.

"We'll see you," Mara bid him farewell.

Cami felt bad that she hadn't told Sam goodbye, but she was afraid that if she said anything, she might break down. Truth was, they might not see the boys for months, if the Leviathans did stay quiet for that long.

***In the Winchester's Cabin***

Dean stood at the end of his bed, stuffing clothing into the tiny duffell bag that held all of his personal belongings at all times. Sam silently began packing up his belongings too. It felt a bit weird, knowing that it would just be the two of them once again. Once they were packed, the two men turned on the television and waited for the ship to dock.

"I'll kinda miss them," Sam said, glancing quickly over at his brother as they sat on the couch, watching television until it was time to disembark the ship.

One of Dean's eyebrows rose, and he made a noise of acknowledgement but not necessarily agreement. He was feeling ready to get back to fighting demons like they normally did, just the two of them. But Dean couldn't help the irking feeling of disappoinment at not getting to hear Mara's voice for days or weeks or even months.

***At the Ministry of Magic***

Right on time for their meeting, Mara and Cami knocked on Harry Potter's door. But this time, Harry didn't call them in. Instead, he opened the door and stepped out.

"Follow me," he said and began walking toward the elevators.

Harry led the two women down to the Department of Mysteries and into a tiny meeting room that probably only a handful of people knew about and which was rarely ever used, evident by the enormous amount of dust and cobwebs covering the room.

Harry ushered the women inside and locked the door behind him. Had anybody but Harry Potter been the one locking them into the room, the girls would have been very worried by this point. As it was, both women were just confused and curious as to the reason behind Harry's actions.

"Mr. Potter? What's going on?" Cami asked.

"I apologize for the odd accommodations, but I wanted to be sure that we were not overheard."

Mara and Cami both looked at him inquisitively.

"I wasn't completely up front with you ladies before. You see this is not the first time I've heard about hunters."

Both girls' eyes widened in surprise.

"Wizards, and even aurors, have crossed paths with them before. We have a very small group, and by very small I mean only two wizards, within the ministry that have been studying hunters and the creatures that they hunt for some time. But this is the first opportunity we've had to work with any hunters, much less the Winchesters."

"The Winchester? You make it sound like they're God's or something," Mara said in an annoyed tone.

"Not God's, but from what we've found, they are two of the best hunters out there."

"Okay. So what? Don't you want us to continue working with them, or are you sending someone else?" Mara would be disappointed but not surprised. They were new aurors after all.

"No. I do want you to continue to work with them. Partially, because of the Leviathans, but for more reasons which we won't discuss right now. I summoned you back to the ministry because hunting is very different from being an Auror. Out in the muggle world you will not always be able to safely use your magic. Our number one concern is not letting muggles find out about our world. If we are going to continue having you two team with these hunters then you're going to need additionial training."

"Additional training?" Cami questioned.

Harry nodded. "You'll need to be trained in what we know of muggle supernatural creatures, more of the muggle customs in America, research using muggle methods, and physical combat and weaponry. Additionally, Cami, I want you to work on your wandless spells, and it wouldn't hurt if you could get down one or two more Mara."

Cami nodded eagerly, thrilled at the chance to be trained to work with Winchesters. But Mara seemed less than happy about the whole situation. Not that she was incredibly opposed to working with the boys, but she'd been working for the past four years to become an Auror, not a hunter. _Now Harry's asking us to learn to fight like muggles not wizards_.

Harry ignored the girls' facial expression. "Now I suggest you head to St. Mungo's to get that shoulder looked at," Harry instructed Mara, "And tomorrow you two will start your training."

The women nodded, and they all left to return to the main level of the ministry.

"I can't believe I'm going to have to learn how to shoot a gun and fight."

Cami was taken aback by Mara's lack of enthusiasm at the opportunity. "I figured you'd be thrilled at the idea of something more to excel at. I mean, Mara, we were just given a huge task for an Auror, and we haven't even been on the job for a month."

Mara took in Cami's words. She was a little shocked that she hadn't thought of it that way before. That was one of the many reasons Mara was so grateful for her partner. Quite often, she could find the best way to make Mara see the bright side of a situation.

"Hmm. Yeah. I guess you're right." Mara continued to dwell upon this thought. When they were done with their training, Cami and her would be more skilled than almost any other Auror in the department. And if they proved themselves, they could easily get put on the best assignments.

Mara smiled now as they entered the hospital. After a two hour wait and a five-minute visit from one of the healers, Mara was sent home feeling and looking almost like new. For the next five weeks, Mara and Cami trained everyday. The two wizards who had been studying the hunters taught the girls' everything they knew about supernatural creatures in the muggle world. Professor Clearwater was brought in from Hogwarts three days a week to train the women in American muggle customs. And to witches' astonishment, they were sent to a local muggle university to take a class on methods of research as well as two more classes on physical combat and use of weapons. Outside of classes, Cami and Mara practiced their wandless spells. After five weeks, Mara not only had Accio and Protego down but she also had perfected Reducto without her wand and Cami had managed to get Expelliarmus down.

Cami had called Sam a few times a week to find out what the men were up to. She avoided talking about their assignment as Mr. Potter had not mentioned whether or not they were supposed to disclose what they were doing. About once a week, Mara texted Dean to see if they'd gotten any more leads. Finally, on October 24th, Mr. Potter called the girls into his office and announced that they were done with training and were to return to America and continue to work with the Winchesters.

"Do they already know that we're going to be returning?" Mara asked..

Harry shook his head. "I'll leave communications up to you for now. I want updates on all the creatures you hunt, and alert me immediately if you find out anything more about the Leviathans."

"Of course sir," Cami answered. Mara nodded and opened the door for them to leave.

"And ladies," Harry added before they were out the door, "This is a very important assignment. I just want you to know that I am certain that I have the best aurors for the job."

Mara and Cami both beemed. "Thank you sir," they both said.

And the women headed straight for the entrance where they could apparate. On the way, Cami texted Sam.

_Where are you?_

_Bobby's. Got a job._

_Stay there_.

Cami looked up from her phone and over at her partner. "Dean and Sam are at Bobby's."

Mara took a deep breath. "To Bobby's it is.*

And both girls apparated outside of Bobby's house. It was raining when they arrived and the two witches hurried up to the door, getting soaked in the process.

Cami knocked at the door, and Sam answered with Dean looking in behind him. To say that the Winchester's looked surprised, was a huge understatement.

"Hello boys," Mara greeted them smugly.

"Hi." Sam uttered, giving Cami a confused smile.

"What are you doing here?" Dean asked.

"We were assigned to come back," Cami answered Dean, though she was looking at Sam as she did so.

"We don't have anymore leads," Dean stated shortly.

"We know." Mara tucked her damp hair behind her hair. "But we were told to return to and continue working with you again."

Dean looked less than pleased by the news. "I appreciate that you girl's want to help and all. But we don't work for Harry Potter, and we don't need you tagging along."

"Here we go again," Bobby groaned as he opened up his flask and took a swig of whatever was inside.

Mara's eyes narrowed. "Look. We just got done with the most intense five weeks of my life. We were instructed to return to working with you, and that's what we're going to do. So would you like to do this the easy way or the hard way?"

Everybody in the room waited for Dean's reaction. He looked like he wanted to argue, and he would have except that a part of him was really happy that Mara was back, the same small part that had sort of hoped that everytime his phone rang or he got a text message that it was her.

"So what's the job you were about to head out on?" Cami looked up at Sam.

"Vampires," he answered, turning back to Bobby, "And Bobby was just about to give us the details."

Bobby sat down in his chair. "There's been a pattern of vamp kills." And pointed at an open map on his desk. "Beginning about a year ago on Route 20. And recurring every two weeks in a town on the route."

"How did they get so far? Why hasn't anyone taken care of it?" Sam questioned.

"Because nobody caught onto it until now. I didn't think nothin' of it until I heard about this last kill. That's when I sat down and put together the pattern. I never woulda noticed because the only ones I got calls on were the ones every six weeks, where they killed 'bout three or four people. But between those, every two weeks there were single kills in smaller towns along the way." Bobby ran his finger along the red line that marked the highway spanning the length of the country.

"So have you figured out where they're headed next?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, yeah. As usual, I've done you're homework for you boys."

"And?"

"And...next attack should take place in Elizabeth, Illinois. I've been to talkin' to the cops in cities all along the route, and all the victims were last seen in a bar or a club."

"Well alright then," Dean straightened up. "Let's go gank us some vamps."

Seven hours later, the group were checked into a hotel in Elizabeth and ready to go vampire hunting. To Dean's dismay, they had to split up once again. Even in the small town of 700, there were two bars and they couldn't risk missing the vamps by going to the wrong one. Sam had picked up a rental car in town so that each team would have transportation, and at about 5:30, they all headed to their respective bars.

"So what exactly are we looking for? What do vampires look like since obviously they're not walking around with fangs and long, sharp fingernails?" Cami asked from the passenger seat of the black Ford Fusion.

Sam smiled. "No. They're not. Vampires are generally paler than most people. They avoid the sunlight. Not to mention, we'll be paying attention to the reaction of others in the bar. They will be looked upon as outsiders. They'll most likely be in a group of three or four, and given the pattern, they'll take an interest in someone."

They pulled into the bar within a couple of minutes and got out. It was about twenty minutes until sunset, and after that, the vampires could show at any time. Cami led the way inside. They each ordered a beer and sat down at a table in the back corner of the room where they could see everything going on without being noticed.

Cami leaned forward on the table, resting her head in one of her hands.

"Tired?" Sam asked.

"Extremely."

"So what were you and Mara doing for the past five weeks?"

"Training."

Sam waited to see if she would add more. She didn't.

"Training. That's all I get?"

Cami gave him an apologetic frown. "Sorry. That's really all I can say at the moment."

"Orders?"

"Yup."

"Still. At least I was getting six or seven hours of sleep most nights. Hunting is much more exhausting. But you grew up in this, so you're probably used to minimal sleep?"

"Pretty much."

"I am curious though...you said that you're dad started hunting after your mom was killed. And before that, you're mom was a hunter?"

"Yeah. Before her and my dad were married. Her father was a hunter too."

"So do many hunters have families?"

Sam nodded. "Some but it's tough. In general, hunters don't stick around too long. The job is just too dangerous."

"That I understand."

***At the second other bar***

"How's the arm doin'?" Dean asked.

"All healed."

"Lemme guess. You used magic."

Mara nodded. "I went to a healer. I couldn't continue working until I did."

"And it doesn't hurt anymore?"

Mara shook her head. "For a couple of weeks it was still pretty sore, but not anymore."

Dean pressed his lips together. He was still angry at himself for getting Mara hurt, and he was suddenly regretting letting Cami and Mara come with on another job.

"You know," Mara said, "You can stop feeling guilty."

"Guilty? And what would I feel guilty about?"

"Oh c'mon," she turned to face Dean, "You didn't leave my side for more than a few hours after we faced the Encantado. You were overly concerned about my injuries, and anytime we talk about what happened you look like you want to go jump off a cliff. It's fairly obvious that you feel guilty for my getting hurt."

"And lemme guess...you're gonna give me some speech about how it's not my fault, and how I need to knock it off."

"No. It is kinda your fault that I got hurt. If you hadn't been wearing that stupid tank..."

"Well don't try to make me feel better or anything."

"Oh for goodness sake. Lighten up Dean. I'm not saying I blame you."

"You should."

"Maybe. But I don't. I knew what I was getting into...sort of. I know there are risks."

"I don't think you really have any idea of the risks."

Mara crossed her arms. "Why? Because I'm so young or because I'm a witch or because I'm a woman."

"Because you're not a hunter," Dean growled under his breath.

"Well, maybe I could be," Mara challenged. She rose from the table before he had time to get in a comeback. She was already tiring of Dean's crap.

***Back at the first bar***

Cami laughed. "Scared of a yorkie? Oh, I wish I could have seen Dean that day?"

Sam was laughing too. "I wish I'd have gotten it on video or something."

The door to the bar jingled, alerting the rest of the room to someone entering or exiting. The bar was now almost completely full, and many of the patrons were already on their third or fourth drink.

A group of four walked in, three men and one woman, they were wearing dark colors and makeup and talking loudly. The entire room watched as they entered. They walked up to the bartender, and ordered an entire bottle of tequila.

Sam lowered his voice. "I think we might have 'em." He quickly texted Dean.

Cami and Sam stayed in the corner, talking occasionally to keep up the pretense, but mostly they watched the group as they took turns taking shots. Eventually two of the men invited a couple of young women to join them. And after about an hour, the group got up to leave, along with the two girls.

They waited until the vampires and their soon-to-be victims left and then headed out to follow them.

***At the second bar***

Dean's phone starting playing "Smoke on the Water" in his pocket. He pulled it out and read the text from Sam.

_Vamps r here. Better head over. Wait in car & follow. 3 guys, 3 girls. 2 of girls r human_

Dean got up from the table and walked over to where Mara was chatting away with the bartender.

"Time to go." He grabbed her elbow and pulled her off the barstool.

"Nice meeting you Nancy," Mara hastily told to the bartender.

"You too," the bartender replied.

Mara yanked her arm from Dean. Outside, they got into the impala and sped away from the bar in a hurry.

"Sam and Cami find them?" Mara asked.

Dean nodded. "We're gonna wait 'til they leave then go find their nest."

The two pulled into the bar where Sam and Cami were. Dean parked the car, and after an hour of awkward silence between the Dean and Mara, the four vampires and their two human companions came bursting out the front door of the bar.

"Showtime," Dean said. He waited until the vampires headed down the road a ways, then pulled out of the parking lot, Cami and Sam just a moment behind. They followed the vampires all the way to an abandoned farmhouse. Sam and Dean both drove their cars past the house a ways, then turned around and parked about half a mile away from the farmhouse in a grove of trees.

The four of them all loaded up with weapons, even the girls took knives dipped in dead man's blood.

This surprised Sam and Dean.

"Don't you just need your wands?" Sam asked.

"And what if we lose our wands?" Cami responded.

"You mean you can't do any magic without them?" Dean cut in.

Cami replied, "We can do a few wandless spells, but they're very difficult; and for most magic we still need our wands."

Dean shrugged. "Well okay. Here's the plan. Sam and I will go after the vamps. It's your job to get to the two human women they took hostage and get them out safely."

Cami and Mara nodded. Mara didn't like being bossed about, but they were the ones with vampire experience.

"Right then. Let's go." Sam grabbed a large machete from the trunk and a crossbow with a few arrows that had been dipped in dead man's blood. Dean was armed with the same set up.

When the four of them reached the vampire's nest, the Winchester's went first inching their way up the front steps to the door. Dean and Sam both took a turn peeking in the front window. Inside, the three vamps already had the two women tied to a couple of chairs and gagged. Both women were crying and had looks of pure terror in their eyes. The female vamp and one of the males were currently making out on a dusty old couch while the other two were running their hands all over the two frightened women.

Dean and Sam positioned themselves in front of the door and in unison, they kicked. The rotting old wood easily splintered off the hinges, and the boys ran inside. Dean headed straight for the two vamps by the victims while Sam descended upon the vampires on the couch.

As each of the boys took a swipe at one of the vamps, the creatures ducked out of the way and retreated to the other end of the room. Two of the vampires raced behind the boys so that each of the Winchester's were blocked on either side.

At this point, Mara and Cami had joined the fight. They each sent a severing charm at one of the vampires. Mara's hit its target, sending his head toppling to the floor. But Cami's vampire had gotten lucky; she'd jumped aside at just the right moment. The female raced forward and swung both arms out knocking the two witches back. Dean and Sam both felt the tug of desire to help the girls; however, they had their own vampires to worry about.

Dean and Sam both aimed their crossbows at the vampires and shot. The vampires saw it coming and rolled aside avoiding the arrows. Dean ran after his vampire while Sam focused on reloading his crossbow.

In the meantime, Cami and Mara had quickly regained their balance. Mara ran over to the two human girls and began cutting through their binds while Cami aimed a body-bind curse at the female vampire. The curse hit her, and she went stiff as a board. When the vampire's frozen body hit the floor, Cami used another severing charm to cut off the vampire's head.

The male vampire who Sam had been going after saw Cami kill his mate. He screamed with rage and raced over to where Cami was standing before Sam could stop him. He grabbed hold of Cami and bit down into her neck.

"No!" Sam yelled out and he sent an arrow into the center of the vampire's back. The vampire fell to the floor as did Cami.

Meanwhile, Dean had been dancing around with the final male vamp until finally he found an opportunity to swing at the creature, and with one swipe, Dean's machete sliced through the vampire's neck. When Dean turned around, he found Sam rolling over an injured Cami and Mara helping the two female's out the door.

Dean hurried over to Sam and knelt down. "Is she okay?"

Sam was examining Cami's neck. She was conscious, but the wound was bleeding profusely. "It's bad. We need to get the wound closed."

Mara left the two girls out front and rushed back inside to see to Cami. She also examined the wounds in Cami's neck. _A clean bite. Thank goodness_. Mara raised her wand and hummed the words. " Vulnera Sanentur. Vulnera Sanentur." The bite marks sealed themselves shut.

"Cami? Are you okay?" Sam asked. He had lifted her up with her head in his lap.

She nodded. "I'll be alright. Are the girls safe?"

"Yes. They're waiting for us outside," Mara told her.

Cami sat herself up, and Sam helped her to her feet. " Good. Let's go get them back to town." She turned toward the front of the house.

"Just hold on a second." Sam hold a hand out to stop her. "You lost quite a bit of blood. Take it slow."

Cami turned her head. "I feel fine. Perhaps a bit dizzy, but well enough to help you get the girls to the car and drive them back into town."

"Mara and I will take care of the bodies," Dean said. Sam nodded. Then he and Cami headed out to get the two frightened women back into town.

Cami and Sam had a difficult time getting the women to calm down, and more than once Cami suggested a memory charm. But Sam assured her that the women would be fine, and they would probably not believe what happened by the next morning much less tell anyone else about it.

Mara watched as Dean chopped off the vampire's head who had bitten Cami. Dean didn't want Mara to have to witness burning the bodies, so once they'd gotten the bodies in a pile outside (Mara had used a levitation charm), Dean sent Mara back to his car to wait.

Mara sat in the car, staring aimlessly out into the trees. In her tired Daze, Mara suddenly thought she noticed a shadow rush by, but it was moving so fast that she couldn't be sure of what she saw. Mara's heart started pounding fast as she searched the woods for any sign of a person or a creature.

Then something hit the back of the car with so much force that it sent the car forward almost a foot. Mara screamed. She pulled out her wand, lighting it so she could see, and stepped out of the car. Mara looked around for whatever had hit the car. She knew it had to be a vampire. All she had to do now was find it. Killing it would be easy.

Mara heard a twig snap behind her, and she whipped around desperately searching of the source. But the vampire was too fast for her. He rushed up behind her, yanking both her arms at awkward angles around her back and dislocating her bad shoulder. The pain in her previously injured arm was blinding, and Mara screamed at the top of her lungs.

The vampire quickly shoved one of his hands over her mouth, letting go of her wand arm. She pointed the wand at the vamps neck and thought "Diffindo!"

The vampire didn't even have time to scream. It's head detached from its body, and the vampire fell to the ground in a heap.

***At the vamps nest***

After Dean had set fire to the vampire bodies, he started back toward the car. He was already halfway back when Mara's scream rang out. And without hesitation, Dean broke into a mad sprint. Just as he arrived, the body of the vampire fell behind Mara. Dean rushed up to her.

"What the hell happened?!"

Mara collapsed on the ground too, holding onto the dislocated arm. "He attacked me," she groaned through the pain.

Dean could tell what was wrong just by looking at Mara's arm, and without her asking, he grabbed her shoulder and her arm and popped the arm back into place. Mara screamed again before relief set in.

Once he was sure she was fine, Dean yanked Mara's good arm so she was facing him. "Will you quit trying to get yourself killed!

"I'm not trying to get myself killed!" Mara yelled back. "I'm just doing my job. It's dangerous. I know that. You know that. And besides-" Mara threw up her good arm and hand in disgust. "What the bloody hell do you really care?! All you ever do is tell me I shouldn't do this or that. You don't think I have what it takes, and you couldn't be more wrong. You're so stubborn that-"

Without warning, Mara's rant was cut off by Dean's lips on hers.

Mara's breath cut off and she jerked her head back in surprise. Dean looked almost as surprised as she felt. He hadn't intended on kissing her. At the time, it had just been a way to get her to shut up. But as soon as he did it, Dean realized how much he'd wanted to kiss her.

Mara searched Dean's face for any sign of regret for his action. Finding none, she leaned forward and kissed him back. It was amazing how during the kiss, Mara could pick out every little feeling...slightly rough feeling of Dean's lips on hers, the placement of his hands on either sides of her neck, the dizzy feeling affecting her brain, and the burning desire for so much more than just a kiss running its way through her body. She noticed when Dean's and her breathing quickened. And just as it did, Dean broke the kiss.

He wanted so badly to throw her up against the car and make her scream his name, but the dynamic of their relationship had switched so suddenly, he wasn't sure what it meant or what to think of it. The last thing he needed, was to have them both regretting some screwed up moment of passion.

Mara worried a little when Dean stopped kissing her so suddenly, but she was grateful that he had the will-power to stop them from taking it too far because she wasn't sure she did.

"We should go check on Cami," Mara stuttered.

"Right. Cami." Dean nodded once and walked around to the driver's side.

After that, the two didn't say much to one another for the rest of the night. And as soon as they got back to the motel, they each went to their own rooms, to their own beds.

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